Amid much rejoicing, I tried to listen to Death Cab's single "I Will Possess Your Heart" as soon as I realized it had been released. Not bad timing considering it was only days I go that I revisited Plans with much renewed appreciation. So...there I was on their Myspace, recognizing the riff from the video they put on their web site in December, waiting for the lyrics to kick in. After about two minutes I said to myself, "Oh. This must be the track that's nine minutes long. Right." For the record, Ben Gibbard doesn't actually start singing until four and a half minutes in and when his voice does break though it's a tad startling. The effect is a musical parting of the sea. Running time is funny because there was a day when it would have been totally unacceptable, but broken confines aside, I'm still trying to figure out if the nearly nine minutes are artful or slightly self-indulgent. Oddly, it goes by surprisingly quick. This may be because the repetition has an entrancing effect, or maybe because of its newness. The lyrics themselves aren't anything spectacular, at least nothing to be compared to the excellence of "Title Track" or "Crooked Teeth," but the music itself is pretty decent by Death Cab standards...solitary piano, solitary guitar then a blend with some other stuff thrown in for that ethereal sound which they pretty much perfected in Plans. In any case, points for making such a confident declaration. Thankfully, May is not too far away. I want to hear the rest of this business. Stay tuned.
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