I Will Possess Your Blahg

I recently discovered the music blog Stereogum. I like this blog because it’s a bit more interactive and conversational than other music sites; they allow you to hear the music they write about, and even have an ongoing “mix” of new artists. The writing is laidback, funny, and informal. They recently gave a heads up to the first single from Death Cab for Cutie’s new album, “Narrow Stairs.”

A good friend of mine introduced me to DCFC. I think it was a few months after “Plans” had been released, and we danced around to “Soul Meets Body” one day in her apartment (I think a requirement to be my friend is an ability to dance goofily together at any given moment.) She had given me a copy of the CD, and I found it a bit too earnest/maudlin/emo. But gradually I fell for the song and most of the album. Unabashedly romantic and unembarrassed about it, that song especially seems to me an ecstatic embrace of two people coming together, and the thrilling power of music to represent that. The moods of the album, contrary to my first listen, are varied–romantic ecstasy, mourning/acceptance of death, nostalgia for childhood. You can tell that Ben Gibbard labors over making his lyrics clean, direct, and precise, like the best poet (although he recently denounced calling songwriting “poetry” in a recent interview with American Songwriter, saying that they are two totally separate things, which I have come to agree with more and more.) I went on to see the band live, and while I was annoyed with the crowd of under-20 O.C. fans and the cavernous Riviera was probably not the best venue for them, there were moments of supreme musical transcendence from the band.

In the American Songwriter article, Gibbard reveals that the new album is totally different from Plans, which was meticulously..uh…planned, with overdubs from each member of the band–at one point Gibbard says he was playing video games in another room while his bassist tracked, and he felt uncomfortable about that. I can see his point, but I think that’s what gave Plans its signature sound–it was elegantly coherent rather than passionately spilled. The new record was recorded all live, with minimal overdubs and few takes. I admire their balls-out new approach, and I can understand as artists they wanted to go in an entirely new direction to elude stagnancy or pigeonholing. But I have to say I was mildly disappointed by the plodding new track. The bass line is sexy, the guitars trickling and throbbing gradually into the song are sexy, but the sexiness goes on for way way way too long! When Gibbard finally starts singing, it’s beautiful and catchy of course, but I felt let down by the slightness of his lyrics and the puny bridge. Then the song sort of ends abruptly, making the whole interminable prelude seem like a dumbbell to the feathery conclusion. Still, maybe this is just another example of how I initially don’t get what Gibbard and co. are trying to do, and eventually I’ll see the light. Maybe I just need to dance around to this track too and I’ll fall for it equally as hard. Regardless, I’m excited to hear the album in its entirety.

 Here is the Stereogum feature, with the full track.