A narrator defiantly stands against a hostile world in the Extra Glenns song “Ultraviolet.”

Track: “Ultraviolet”
Album: Martial Arts Weekend (2002)

John Darnielle has said two things of note about the Extra Glenns song “Ultraviolet.” He said it was a song about salvation, which makes sense given the lyrics. This is a song about someone going through something, which every song is in a way, but it’s expressly about protecting yourself and taking care of how you make it to tomorrow. He’s also said the title comes from a movie he was watching, which might make you think of the 2006 Milla Jovovich joint that people seem to really, truly hate, but the timeline doesn’t work. My best guess is that movie was a 1992 horror film about “psycho-sexual games,” but honestly, I think this is a mystery we can leave unsolved.

I love John Darnielle’s delivery of “I leaned a little while up against a barber pole” and the passionate ending. The whole song is about that ending for me, with the narrator who has “lost a quart of blood since Tuesday” demanding that they will not let someone take everything from them. “I didn’t let ’em take the very best part // the last lone bit of light left flickering in my heart” is a sentiment that dozens of Mountain Goats narrators could get behind, but it’s uniquely a Glenns song because of the instrumentation and the style. The extended outro lets you sit with that thought and invites you to wonder if you are protecting yourself as much as you should.