The Sound of Settling : Death Cab for Cutie

As obvious as it may sound, the older I get, the more certain bands, albums or songs make sense to me. The National is a good example. Boxer is one of my favorite albums. I know I appreciate it more than I did as a freshly-graduated high schooler and I know I'll appreciate it even more when I'm 30. There can hardly be a better occurrence than a band that grows up with you.

Death Cab for Cutie works that way for me too, but maybe in a different way. Lord knows I've written about them ad nauseum, but its hard not to after repeated realizations that there's a line in a song that sums up perfectly what I'm thinking. (And no, I could not really use a wish right now.)

Example: These days whenever one of my friends get engaged, (and man, are they getting engaged) I like to have a ceremonial playing of "I Was Once A Loyal Lover," chiefly for the lines that say "All my friends are forward thinking, getting hitched and quitting drinking. I can feel them pulling away as I'm resigned to stay the same." Cheers, right? It's great stuff.

Today I figured out that a thought I'd been trying to condense into a tidy phrase was already hanging out in Death Cab's "The Sound of Settling." Partly, I think it's a testament to the songwriter. While the lyrics v. music debate rages on, I think I'll continue to put put my faith in words.

In any case, check out the video. 1:55 is probably the best part of any given music video I've ever seen.