A horse crashes through a wall in “Twelve Hands High” to force a conversation between the Alpha Couple.

Track: “Twelve Hands High”
Album: Martial Arts Weekend (2002)

If you squint, most of the songs on Martial Arts Weekend could be love songs, but there really isn’t a theme that binds the whole thing together. It’s an Extra Glenns/Lens record, so it’s technically a side project that John Darnielle recorded with Franklin Bruno, but many of the songs have been played at Mountain Goats shows and I think that rounds it up to being part of the expanded Mountain Goats universe.

Saying there’s no uniting theme for Martial Arts Weekend isn’t an insult. It’s a fantastic album and is loud and bouncy compared to the other Glenns/Lens album Undercard. Both have standout tracks and belong in any fan’s top albums list, but they sit in stark stylistic contrast. Most of the cast on Undercard seems lost and lonely. The characters on Martial Arts Weekend aren’t happy, but they’re exuberant. They want to share their stories.

“Twelve Hands High” is also called “Fit Alpha Vi,” which is Latin for “alpha is violent,” roughly. John Darnielle says the idea behind it was originally a poem and predates his songwriting career. The version that made it to Martial Arts Weekend sees the Alpha Couple arguing about a horse. They’re angrier than they usually are and more direct, which is interesting. One tells the other that they feel “pressure bearing down” and the other has been sleeping on the lawn. John Darnielle raises his voice over “and there’s a different world waiting for me // when I lift my head up from your thick dark hair” and you can picture the scene. It took a horse crashing through a wall to make the Alpha Couple face their problems, but we know that this is only a moment of clarity before they’ll be back to drunken denial.