Death Cab for Cutie "Plans"
Death Cab for Cutie’s latest, Plans, serves up a melancholic but audibly pleasing sound that matches their thoughtful lyrics. The words and vocals of Benjamin Gibbard blend well with the guitar-playing of Nicholas Harmer and the drum-work of Jason McGerr.
Kicking it off with “Marching Bands of Manhattan,� Gibbard sings that he desires to show his love how beautiful Manhattan is, to have his love’s name sung in public, and dares to share the light of that love. He dares to say that their love will so abundantly pour out that it won’t matter which is half-full or half-empty, it will be overflowing! This love sonnet is followed by “Soul Meets Body,� another renaissance-like song desiring to “live where soul meets body,� feeling like new in a place where all his thoughts fit. There is a redemptive quality to his love, where he knows “our filthy hands can wash one another’s/And not one speck remains.� Like Jesus making us clean of our sins, we have the opportunity to forgive each other and help others heal—until not one speck remains.
“Summer Skin� and “Different Names for the Same Thing� express more temporal relationships, but “I Will Follow You In the Dark� returns to the deeper relationships of the first. “I’ll follow you into the dark/No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white/Just our hands clasped tight, waiting for the hint of a spark,� sings Gibbard. The belief in what death and afterlife might look like is cynical at best but it’s still hopeful in the end. One of the most clever images I heard in my latest batch of albums was that “if heaven and hell decide that they are both satisfied/And illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs/If there is no one beside you when your soul embarks/Then I’ll follow you into the dark.� How sweet is that? Gibbard’s theology is definitely impacted (and documented later) by the Catholic school upbringing that told him “fear is the heart of love,� but his belief was rather that there was NO FEAR in love—interesting that this idea is more Biblical, hmmm…. It’s still an interesting idea that heaven and hell would no longer be selective—wow that’s a whole theology paper!
Different co-ed relationships get some time in “Your Heart is an Empty Room,� with a subject who just wants to be in a relationship, any relationship, and “Someday You Will Be Loved,� a hopeful yet unremorseful message for a love previously scorned. Gibbard condemns his own nature in “Crooked Teeth,� continuing a depressing downward style. Here he says their former relationship was built on bad material, because “I built you a home in my heart with rotten wood and it decayed from the start.� That’s a rough self-critical evaluation but certainly applicable to some of our fleeting relationships. He continues to examine his own personality (head versus heart) and finds it wanting.
The album still gets more maddening though in “What Sarah Said.� Although the contents carry truth with them, I wanted so badly to interject some optimism into what Sarah thought! Here, Gibbard sings as someone sitting in a hospital watching someone else suffer, recognizing that plans look like prayers to Father Time. As the girl he loves dies, he says “I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all.� That’s tough but true for plenty of real relationships. Everyone around him is looking at the floor rather than the televisions, because as Sarah said, “love is watching someone die.� So, Gibbard asks, “who’s gonna watch you die?�
Much of the album is depressing, but it is rather thought-provoking too. And the listener to Death Cab has a choice: do you get drained by the reflection on love and loss, or do you reflect on the importance of what you have right now? Death Cab understands love—I just hope in the future that they can enjoy some hope too.
Kicking it off with “Marching Bands of Manhattan,� Gibbard sings that he desires to show his love how beautiful Manhattan is, to have his love’s name sung in public, and dares to share the light of that love. He dares to say that their love will so abundantly pour out that it won’t matter which is half-full or half-empty, it will be overflowing! This love sonnet is followed by “Soul Meets Body,� another renaissance-like song desiring to “live where soul meets body,� feeling like new in a place where all his thoughts fit. There is a redemptive quality to his love, where he knows “our filthy hands can wash one another’s/And not one speck remains.� Like Jesus making us clean of our sins, we have the opportunity to forgive each other and help others heal—until not one speck remains.
“Summer Skin� and “Different Names for the Same Thing� express more temporal relationships, but “I Will Follow You In the Dark� returns to the deeper relationships of the first. “I’ll follow you into the dark/No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white/Just our hands clasped tight, waiting for the hint of a spark,� sings Gibbard. The belief in what death and afterlife might look like is cynical at best but it’s still hopeful in the end. One of the most clever images I heard in my latest batch of albums was that “if heaven and hell decide that they are both satisfied/And illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs/If there is no one beside you when your soul embarks/Then I’ll follow you into the dark.� How sweet is that? Gibbard’s theology is definitely impacted (and documented later) by the Catholic school upbringing that told him “fear is the heart of love,� but his belief was rather that there was NO FEAR in love—interesting that this idea is more Biblical, hmmm…. It’s still an interesting idea that heaven and hell would no longer be selective—wow that’s a whole theology paper!
Different co-ed relationships get some time in “Your Heart is an Empty Room,� with a subject who just wants to be in a relationship, any relationship, and “Someday You Will Be Loved,� a hopeful yet unremorseful message for a love previously scorned. Gibbard condemns his own nature in “Crooked Teeth,� continuing a depressing downward style. Here he says their former relationship was built on bad material, because “I built you a home in my heart with rotten wood and it decayed from the start.� That’s a rough self-critical evaluation but certainly applicable to some of our fleeting relationships. He continues to examine his own personality (head versus heart) and finds it wanting.
The album still gets more maddening though in “What Sarah Said.� Although the contents carry truth with them, I wanted so badly to interject some optimism into what Sarah thought! Here, Gibbard sings as someone sitting in a hospital watching someone else suffer, recognizing that plans look like prayers to Father Time. As the girl he loves dies, he says “I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all.� That’s tough but true for plenty of real relationships. Everyone around him is looking at the floor rather than the televisions, because as Sarah said, “love is watching someone die.� So, Gibbard asks, “who’s gonna watch you die?�
Much of the album is depressing, but it is rather thought-provoking too. And the listener to Death Cab has a choice: do you get drained by the reflection on love and loss, or do you reflect on the importance of what you have right now? Death Cab understands love—I just hope in the future that they can enjoy some hope too.
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