i wont let you/

Turn up the volume if you can, dim the lights if it is convenient, make sure you will not be interrupted for the next 8 minutes or so, and watch through the *entire* song above. I refuse to let you read the rest of this post until you have done so, and I trust that you trust me.





done?

good.






Let me get this straight. I never trusted Death Cab For Cutie from the start. Sure I only had a couple of songs from their OC days, but still I always felt for some reason they were the poor man's version of The Decemberists. Songs about immortal love and stuff like that are fair and fine enough by themselves, but they were not particularly *memorable* nor scything like how Colin Meloy and co. do it. That and their stiff band name. I mean Death Cab? For Cutie? Wha?

So I was rather indifferent when I first put on their new album that came into hmv the last couple of weeks I was there, but found it actually not so bad at all. I started to find myself playing the CD as often I could, but not too long at a stretch since the songs inside were not exactly what you called ' commercial' ( oh well upstairs still wanted nauseating replays of madonna's album then). I mean just take a listen to their first single, ' I Will Possess Your Heart', where the vocals only come in *4 minutes and a half * after the start. " You can hear their record label bosses gently weep as the vocals finally come in" so aptly described by NME. DcFc could have went all bland and stuff after finding fame and widespread popularity after their OC stint and grammy nomination, but nope, I respect them for their trying out something new on ' Narrow Stairs'.

If you are looking for the same instant hooks like ' Title & Registration' or the warm kind of ' Army Corps of Architects' then you probably will not find it here. Most of the lyrics here have a healthy tint of genuine melancholy that I find really gives colour to each individual song, or as Allmusic puts it rather succinctly, raw rather than polished, heartbroken rather than optimistic, enigmatic rather than energetic. The album really does grow on you, and there is no better example of that then ' I Will Possess Your Heart'.

It starts slow and innocent enough, with that rev and the bass guitar that settles into its own rhythm, the drums sliding in unnoticed, the keyboard chiming as his turn finally comes. It is in one word, gorgeous to put it simply. To just sit back, close your eyes, and listen to how everything falls into place and builds up to a tantalizing height. Stunts like this cant be pulled often on us listeners, but when pulled off like that, how can one say no?

The lyrics are firm and to the point here, something refreshing from a band that I found liked too much dithering semi romantic love songs with protagonists that refuse to just get on with it when enough is enough. But I guess those were what attracted DcFc's main core group of female fans to them in the beginning. Granted, saying " I will possess your heart" straight upfront may seem too eerily forward and scary ( and rightfully so), but really I find in context here it is not really about that. All the lyrics here are asking for is just a *chance*. Nothing more but just to spend some time together. It may be heartbreak, or it may be finally love, but before any of that at least a chance of any kind would be good is all the protagonist is asking for, honest, upfront, and sincere. It actually is quite good isnt it?

Plus I do like the video too, the traveling bits. Ok I admit precious shots of a rather attractive girl with wispy hair set against the sun cant really go wrong but that's not the point. Well it just reminds me I still got a bit of wanderlust to do before ill be satisfied, and the short run around in Vietnam last year will only be the beginning. Couple of nights back I dropped by xj's and desi's lot at the the tanglin mall flea market, and found out that des just came back from a two week trip up Vietnam too. The route she took was different, though the direction was the same, most of it being on a 5 day hired motorbike tour up the midlands. The photos on her camera were telling too, very different from the kind me and the rest took. She had people. A lot of people. Each one captured differently, each one probably meant something to her. Many close ups too. While we had lots of interesting bits and wide scenery shots. Says a lot about what we were looking at doesnt it?


haa so maybe we were a bit too absorbed in ourselves then, but im fine with the way my experience as it is. But ill keep that in mind the next time. Somewhere to the west next I think. Europe I hope, but ill see what comes eh?


Death Cab For Cutie is coming down to singapore for show in early august too. So are the lucksmiths!

Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart











/let me down so easily

The popular alternative

Death Cab for Cutie provides a simple solution for the some of us who are frequently caught between the simplistic likes of popular music and the overwhelmingly anarchic nature of garage-born alternative tracks. Indeed, by weaving captivating (and occasionally haunting) tunes into song structures that go beyond the pre-chorus--chorus build so often seen in popular music, and presenting the resultant music with some very soulful notes on the instruments, the band, like Coldplay, has won its support from both the masses and the avant-garde.

In choosing which songs to put up here I have noticed there is no way I can give the reader a valid account of what Death Cab for Cutie is all about. They have come a long way since Ben Gibbard first started out alone, and the ground the band has covered between You Can Play These Songs with Chords and Plans, their latest album, is commendable and indicative of their willingness to experiment (and that is the ingredient that keeps alternative music alive, no?). That being said, “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” and “Death of an Interior Designer”, two of my personal favourites, remain shining examples of what it feels to pass through torpid days singing and fading to the rhythms of pleasant melancholy. Enjoy.

Note: More alternative tracks can be found in their earlier albums. Any song—and I really do mean any song--from the albums The Photo Album and Transatlanticism is good, and the song Transatlanticism itself is extremely potent when you’re down in your bed wishing you could be out there somewhere in space.

Note too that I am not Zhanhui.

Death Cab For Cutie - Brothers On A Hotel Bed

Death Cab For Cutie - Death Of An Interior Decorator