Tastes Just Like it Costs by MJ Lenderman — Meaning & Lyrics Explained

From the album Knockin' - EP

What is "Tastes Just Like it Costs" by MJ Lenderman about?

This is a song about someone who claims they're easygoing while actively policing their partner over something as small as a hat, then obsessively repeating a phrase about expensive meat being worth it after everything goes sideways. The mantra about cost and taste becomes a desperate attempt to convince himself the relationship's expense justifies whatever just collapsed on that sidewalk.

What are the main themes in "Tastes Just Like it Costs"?

What does "Before anything else" mean in "Tastes Just Like it Costs"?

You know I'm no hard-ass / And you know I couldn't be less / But what did I tell you / About wearin' that dumb hat

The protest arrives before the accusation, which means he knows what he's about to say makes him look controlling. That 'but' erases everything that came before it.

What does "Midway through the second verse" mean in "Tastes Just Like it Costs"?

Where we bought our expensive meat / That we had planned to eat

The shift to past tense on 'planned' means the plan is already dead. He's describing a future that never made it past the butcher shop parking lot.

What does "Deep into the third verse" mean in "Tastes Just Like it Costs"?

You screamed / And I tripped / You screamed and I tripped

We never learn what caused either action or which came first. The repetition makes them feel simultaneous, like they're both responses to the same unnamed rupture the song refuses to show us.

What does "Across the entire outro" mean in "Tastes Just Like it Costs"?

Mm, honey / It tastes just like it costs

Repeating this ten times after a scene of conflict turns a compliment about good meat into evidence of someone trying to talk themselves into believing the expense was justified. The more he says it, the less it sounds like he believes it.

What is the deeper meaning of "Tastes Just Like it Costs"?

What sticks is how much energy goes into insisting he's relaxed while clearly being wound tight about everything. The song ends with him still saying the expensive meat tastes good, long after we've stopped believing that's what he's really talking about.

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