2 keepers
keeper avg .181
For their fourth album Death Cab followed up the success of Transatlanticism with their fourth and best-selling album. It features their best-selling single, the minimalist "I Will Follow You into the Dark"****, which showcases the talents of Ben Gibbard as the king of emo poetry in poignant details:
In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me,
Son, fear is the heart of love, so I never went back
In the relatively rocking "Crooked Teeth"**** the protagonist relates:
I braved treacherous streets
And kids strung out on homemade speed
And we shared a bed in which I could not sleep at all
For my money the band's stealth weapon is the rhythm section of Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr; they elevate several songs working as a forceful unit, setting up a sinuous backdrop in "Summer Skin," providing a melodic counterpoint in "Crooked Teeth," and propelling the relentlessly downer "What Sarah Said" with a skipping rhythm.
However, the best thing about a significant number of tracks is their competent inoffensiveness. It's sad that the only thing distinguishing "Marching Bands of Manhattan", "Soul Meets Body," and "Your Heart Is an Empty Room" from Coldplay is the fact that coolness be damned, Gibbard's lyrics have some meaning. Of course, meaningful lyrics can be a bit overdramatic in emo. The raucous "Someday You Will Be Loved" feeds on the extreme suffering at the loss of love but that's nothing compared to the ruminations on death in "What Sarah Said," which concludes with the lines: "love is watching someone die - So who's gonna watch you die?" Jesus, lighten up Ben. The album crawls to the finish line with "Stable Song," the most 90's Midwest emo song since The Promise Ring. Like a lot of the album, it isn't very engaging but hard to hate, a combination that obviously worked out for the band commercially.
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