In the directly named “Adultery,” you may be able to guess what two people get up to and then live with.

Track: “Adultery”
Album: Undercard (2010)

“Adultery” is barely a minute-and-a-half long. It’s an explosion and a strong choice to open Undercard as a result. You can make a case for a few others, but there are only two extremely direct, inarguable songs about infidelity on the second album that John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno put out together. Now known as the Extra Lens, each songwriter takes credit for specific songs on this one. “How I Left the Ministry” is Franklin Bruno’s and “Adultery” is John Darnielle’s. I wouldn’t blame anyone who couldn’t immediately tell the difference, but it is interesting to work backwards from that fact to see each take.

“How I Left the Ministry” is a little more thoughtful, with a perspective of one of the two cheating people wondering how they got into this mess. We can infer from the title something even beyond the lyrics, suggesting a person of the cloth is wrapped up in this literal and figurative car crash. “Adultery” is more to-the-point. This is about adultery, you see, and welcome to this album. The guitar is intense and gets some room to stretch in the outro, but this one is almost entirely about John Darnielle’s snarl. “And I’m standing on the same spot where your husband stood” is the only direct reference beyond the title, but it’s an especially bitter one. You can hear Darnielle spit a little with a few lines and this narrator is one of the angriest in the Glenns/Lens period. John Darnielle has written dozens of songs about broken marriages, but this may be the point that embodies it all the most. There’s intensity, mostly but not entirely negative intensity, and very little time to reflect.