The Mountains Win Again

How do you hide a heartbreak song on a party album?

You bury it behind a harmonica. You put it on the same record as “Run-Around” and “Hook” — two of the most aggressively cheerful songs of the ’90s — and hope nobody notices the track that was designed to hurt.

The title is a metaphor so obvious it becomes profound. Life throws up mountains. You try to climb them. Sometimes you make it. Most times — if we’re being honest — the mountains win. They were there before you. They’ll be there after. Your struggle doesn’t even register.

“Didn’t I tell you that I love you, baby?”

Popper’s voice cracks on that line. Not dramatically. Just a small fracture that reveals the size of what’s underneath. He’s asking a question he already knows the answer to. He told her. It wasn’t enough.

Four sold six million copies on the strength of MTV-friendly singles, but Blues Traveler came out of the jam band scene. They were more interested in feel than hooks. “The Mountains Win Again” is where those two impulses collide — a proper pop song that still leaves room for the music to wander, for the harmonica to say what Popper’s voice can’t.

Some mountains you can’t climb. The trick is surviving the attempt.