2008 Music In Review - #23

"I Will Process Your Heart" was the first single Death Cab For Cutie released off of their latest album, Narrow Stairs. The song is over eight minutes long and starts will a bass line and piano that go on for close to four minutes before any singing comes into play. You get all relaxed and into the groove that is being laid down in your ears. The lyrics quickly snaps you back into reality as the songs turns out to be a letter from a stalker.

"There are days I spend outside your window
I see my reflection as I slowly pass
And I long for this mirrored perspective
When we will, be lovers at last."

Ben Gibbard is the frontman for Death Cab For Cutie and has this way with writing about failed relationships and wrong paths that we've taken. Nothing new on the lyrics with most of the songs on Narrow Stairs. What has changed in this album from their 2005 major label debut is the feel of how the band recorded each track. No elaborate multitrack recording, it feels as if they were all in the room for the recording process. The album is dark lyrically as they've made.

"Grapevine Fires" gives us a glimpse of the California fires of the past few years. He talks about a man, his lover and her daughter in a cemetery where they watch the fires in the background.

"Watched the bullets paint the sky gray
She laughed and danced through a field of graves
There I knew we'd be alright."

The song ends with the firemen working double shifts and prayers of rain on their lips, yet we have no conclusion to the tale he just told of the fate of the family in the cemetery.

If your not careful and you listen to the music without what Ben is saying, you might just think this is a happy pop record. Death Cab For Cutie is a great band. I've enjoyed all the music this band has made through the years. Just don't listen to the lyrics too closely or you might not come away with a happy feeling, unless that's what your into.