Plans - Death Cab for Cutie
This is the new album from Death Cab for Cutie. I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while but right now just seems particularly appropriate. It’s beautiful and haunting, in many ways similar to Transatlanticism (chord patterns, instrumentation) but in many ways different (themes, lyrics). This represents the band’s first work under a major label - they’ve signed recently with Atlantic and were for many years with Barsuk, a local Seattle label. For those of you who don’t know, Death Cab is in fact a Seattle band. In fact, their lead singer is also the voice of The Postal Service, who was with (also) local label Sub-Pop, whose offices used to be just a block from my apartment.
But back to the album. I was most touched by the brave themes of some of the ballads - "What Sara Said," about being with someone through an extended illness and watching them die, "Brothers," about how love may fade as we get older, "Someday," trying to console a lover that has been left behind. But tonight I’m thinking of the very first track, "Marching Bands of Manhattan," and in particular the refrain, which starts half-way through the songs and repeats about twelve times, which sounds as though it would be ridiculous and repetitive but is in fact very powerful - at least to me:
"Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole
Just like a faucet with a leak but there is comfort in the sound
And while you debate half empty and half full
It’s rising up; your love is going to drown."
You can preview the album at http://music.msn.com/album/?album=44208826 . May it mean as much to you as it has to me.
