The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by… Read Full Bio ↴The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the plural moniker. The Mountain Goats are, for all practical purposes, the endlessly clever and prolific John Darnielle and whatever musicians he surrounds himself with, which means that while the soundscape may change from project to project, the overall tone and feel of Darnielle's work remains remarkably consistent. At his best, he writes finely observed, slightly surreal, impressionistic vignettes that manage to mix life as we live it with life as we wish we could live it, and as such he has more in common with a novelist than he does with the typical singer/songwriter, which is fitting, as he's also a published author. Darnielle's early Mountain Goats releases were lo-fi, cassette-recorded efforts cut with a rotating lineup of musicians, such as 1995's Nine Black Poppies and 2000's The Coroner's Gambit. By 2005's The Sunset Tree, his recordings had become cleaner and less cluttered, but his characters studies were just as vivid, and as the Mountain Goats finally cohered into a stable lineup (with Darnielle joined by Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster), they recorded tuneful, thematically unified albums such as Beat the Champ (2015) and Goths (2017) that ranked with their finest work.
Darnielle began the new millennium with The Coroner's Gambit for Absolutely Kosher before signing to 4AD for the release of the surprisingly polished Tallahassee in 2002. We Shall All Be Healed followed in 2004, and one year later, Darnielle was back with The Sunset Tree. Remaining as prolific as ever, Darnielle turned away from the intensity of The Sunset Tree for a calmer, more reflective set of songs on 2006's Get Lonely. The accessible and assured Heretic Pride appeared in 2008. Next up was the Bible verse-inspired The Life of the World to Come, the group's sixth album for 4AD, in 2010. Switching to Merge Records in 2011, Darnielle released All Eternals Deck, which was recorded in four different studios in Brooklyn, Boston, North Carolina, and Florida with four different producers -- John Congleton, Scott Solter, Brandon Eggleston, and Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan -- helming various tracks. That year the band was also handpicked by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating in Minehead, England, but they were ultimately unable to appear due to scheduling issues.

Love Hymn to Aphrodite
The Mountain Goats Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

[spoken:] the actual date is the 17th of april. love hymn to aphrodite.

the sunset gets a little longer every night
and it's no good but I feel alright.
the sky turns orange and the colors start swirling.
you float downstairs, your body spinning
in perfect circles.
it's the 18th of july, but what are you doing?

Overall Meaning

The Mountain Goats's "Love Hymn to Aphrodite" is a song that describes the beauty of love and the overwhelming feeling that comes with it. The first stanza talks about how the sunset gets longer every night and how it feels good despite being bad for one's mental health. This could be interpreted as a metaphor for falling in love; while it can be dangerous and ultimately unhealthy, the feeling it produces is so enchanting that it's hard to resist. The second stanza describes a scene where the singer's lover is descending the stairs in circles, presumably in a dance. This image is a powerful one, as it conjures up images of swirling emotions and dizzying passion. The last line ("it's the 18th of july, but what are you doing?") is somewhat cryptic, but it could be interpreted as the singer questioning the purpose of life in general, now that they have found love.

The song is written in a stream of consciousness style, with each stanza flowing into the next seamlessly. This gives the impression that the singer is lost in their thoughts and emotions, unable to fully articulate what they are feeling. This is a common theme in The Mountain Goats's music, as many of their songs deal with the complexities of human emotion.

Line by Line Meaning

the sunset gets a little longer every night
The gradual elongation of the sunset is a reminder that time never stops, but rather relentlessly presses forward.

and it's no good but I feel alright.
Despite the awareness of the unceasing passage of time, there is an acceptance and sense of comfort in this knowledge.

the sky turns orange and the colors start swirling.
As dusk descends upon the sky, the colors blend together in a mesmerizing dance of natural beauty.

you float downstairs, your body spinning
The presence of someone dear fills you with a sense of boundless joy and carefree abandonment, expressed in a joyful dance.

in perfect circles.
Every movement is precisely coordinated, expressing the synchronicity of two people in harmony.

it's the 18th of july, but what are you doing?
Despite the passage of time, the present moment is all that matters, prompting the question of how to make the most of it.

Contributed by Hudson E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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