Numerous deep-cut references make the exciting “Love Cuts the Strings” a lyrical puzzle worth solving.

Track: “Love Cuts the Strings”
Album: Philyra (1994) and Protein Source of the Future…Now! (1999)

As of this writing, the most recent Mountain Goats album is about wrestling. Like everything else in the catalog it’s not solely about what it’s “about,” but the songs that explore the consistent themes of the band (loneliness, deserved rewards, external and internal struggles, etc.) are about wrestling, this time. Similar experiments include the meth album, the stepdad album, and the divorcing-couple-in-Tallahassee-Florida album.

No matter how out there the structure gets, though, you’re still listening to a Mountain Goats album. The themes repeat like they do for all artists who write about the things they really care about. Two decades ago while writing Philyra, John Darnielle clearly wanted to couch his themes in much more obtuse subject matter. There isn’t one connecting element to the four songs, but they definitely still feel at home in the catalog.

“Love Cuts the Strings” is the most raucous of the four. Darnielle strums at light speed and barks out lines like “punch-drunk, snowblind, as though the whole thing were a bad dream.” It’s easy to get into the beat and to nod along with the intensity, but just what the lyrics are talking about is a little murky.

Kypris is another name for Aphrodite, who also shows up in the last verse as “the green-eyed goddess” who prepares for war. As near as I can tell, the narrator is imagining the concept of love as something that’s following them as they flee. They mention recognizing the figure but not understanding how, which seems about right for a Darnielle narrator’s relationship with affection. Finally, they picture the air around love turning red as they feel “a dull chill” come over themselves.