{"id":1498,"date":"2018-02-15T20:10:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T01:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2022-05-13T16:29:31","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T20:29:31","slug":"arachnophonia-death-cab-for-cutie-transatlanticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2018\/02\/arachnophonia-death-cab-for-cutie-transatlanticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Arachnophonia: Death Cab For Cutie “Transatlanticism”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Arachnophonia<\/a> is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about items in the Parsons Music Library<\/a>\u2018s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the library catalog record for the item in question<\/a> or to additional<\/a> relevant<\/a> information<\/a> from<\/a> around<\/a> the web.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s installment of Arachnophonia<\/a> is by Music Library student worker Cole (class of 2021) and features Transatlanticism<\/strong><\/a> the fourth studio album by indie rock band Death Cab For Cutie originally released in 2003. Thanks, Cole!<\/em><\/p>\n

Death Cab For Cutie<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Transatlanticism<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Death<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this is the New Year
\nAnd I don\u2019t feel any different\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

So begins Death Cab for Cutie\u2019s 2003 album Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em>, and so too begins another calendar year. I mentioned this record in my previous Arachnophonia post<\/a>, so I found it fitting to further detail it for my first submission of 2018. Written entirely by front man Ben Gibbard<\/a> and recorded at the same time as The Postal Service\u2019s Give Up<\/a><\/em>, Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em> offers a darker and more personal rumination on love than the synth-pop optimism of Gibbard\u2019s collaboration with Jimmy Tamborello. Whereas Give Up<\/a><\/em> dwells on relationships past, it ultimately is a celebration of those experiences. Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em> is principally about the distances from others\u2013physical and otherwise \u2013 that prevent us from being happy. It condemns, rather than celebrates, past failures.<\/p>\n

Gibbard\u2019s obsession with destructive distance is evident from the first moments of the album, and indeed the record\u2019s name itself. The aforementioned intro track \u201cThe New Year<\/a>\u201d finds him mocking the inane celebration of the New Year\u2019s holiday. Eventually, the song drops its cynical fa\u00e7ade and ends with an honest rumination about the first type of distance addressed in the album \u2013 geographic: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish the world was flat like the old days
\nThen I could travel just by folding a map
\nNo more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
\nThere’d be no distance that can hold us back\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Gibbard has become disillusioned about the “magic” of the New Year. Rather than celebrating with his friends the progression of time, he chooses instead to lament about \u201cthe old days\u201d when the world was flat, senselessly believing that this would somehow allow him to be closer to his estranged lover. <\/p>\n

Further on, numerous songs wrestle with an entirely different form of distance \u2013 temporal. In \u201cWe Looked Like Giants<\/a>,\u201d the second to last track of the album, Gibbard reminisces over the novelty of first love. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve become what I always hated when I was with you then
\nWe looked like giants in the back of my grey subcompact
\nFumbling to make contact as the others slept inside\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

He notes the irony of how much he\u2019s changed in the days since his high school affair and views the entire experience with an acute awareness of their na\u00efvet\u00e9. Unlike most other songs from Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em>, Gibbard doesn\u2019t pine for anything here. \u201cWe Looked Like Giants\u201d reminisces but doesn\u2019t dwell. It examines an old flame for what it was, not what it might have been, and in doing so provides the closest thing to a sense of closure found on the album. <\/p>\n

Contrarily, \u201cTitle and Registration<\/a>\u201d recounts a personal experience of Ben Gibbard, stumbling across pictures of an ex-lover he \u201ctried to forget\u201d while searching for a legal document in the glove compartment of his car. He reminisces about this love lost thus:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no blame
\nFor how our love did slowly fade
\nAnd now that it’s gone
\nIt’s like it wasn’t there at all
\nAnd here I rest
\nWhere disappointment and regret collide
\nLying awake at night\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Gibbard takes an intriguing stance in this verse, first asserting that there\u2019s \u201cno blame\u201d for the end of the relationship, but still expresses \u201cdisappointment and regret.\u201d He takes issue not with the ending of the affair, but with how both parties allowed their love to extinguish with whimper. It\u2019s only now, since distance has developed from the ending of the relationship, that Gibbard is tormented by his failure. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The final form of distance addressed in Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em>, and indeed the most crucial, is emotional. As suggested in \u201cTitle and Registration,\u201d Gibbard\u2019s deepest wounds are delivered not by betrayal, but the slow division that sedates love into apathy. In \u201cExpo \u201986<\/a>,\u201d he critiques the very pursuit of love itself:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I think this cycle never ends
\nWe slide from top to bottom then we turn and climb again
\nAnd it seems by the time that I have figured what it’s worth
\nThe squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse
\nBut if I move my place in line, I’ll lose
\nAnd I have waited, the anticipation’s got me glued
\nI am waiting for something to go wrong
\nI am waiting for familiar resolve\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Like Sisyphus<\/a> eternally rolling his boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back once he\u2019s reached the top, Ben Gibbard feels trapped in a never-ending cycle of relationships. He desperately wants more than anything to just finish<\/em>. This fixation with repetition prevents him from truly engaging in any meaningful way. Instead, he\u2019s just \u201cwaiting for something to go wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Death<\/p>\n

This dissociation from romantic endeavors is what drives Gibbard in \u201cTiny Vessels<\/a>.\u201d Here, he confesses to his emotional detachment, painting himself in a selfish and potentially even misogynistic light:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSo one last touch, and then you’ll go
\nAnd we’ll pretend that it meant something so much more
\nBut it was vile, and it was cheap
\nAnd you are beautiful
\nBut you don’t mean a thing to me\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Heartbreak after heartbreak has driven Gibbard from seeking passionate love to purely physical stimulation \u2013 the very transformation he despises. While \u201cTiny Vessels\u201d proves to be a moral recession, it exists to embolden the revelation of the next song, the title track \u201cTransatlanticism<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

Just shy of eight minutes long, \u201cTransatlanticism\u201d stands as the focal point of the album. In many ways it proves to be antithetical to every other song on the record. Rather than a cynical dismissing of past relationships, the title track is a heartbreakingly honest plea for true love. While the song is literally about a man being separated from his lover by the birth of the Atlantic Ocean, in truth it details the death of a relationship at the hands of a widening emotional disconnect. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people were overjoyed
\nThey took to their boats
\nI thought it less like a lake
\nAnd more like a moat\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Gibbard makes use of all three forms of distance \u2013 physical, temporal, and emotional, \u2013 and in doing so, produces the most genuine and stunning track of the album. Unlike \u201cTitle and Registration,\u201d in \u201cTransatlanticism\u201d the speaker hasn\u2019t resigned to simply regret the death of his relationship, because a fragment of it still remains. Rather than accept the slow death, he fights tooth and nail to preserve the love that\u2019s slipping through his fingers. The song crescendos with a simple refrain – \u201cI need you so much closer\u201d – repeated twelve times, and then finally climaxes with the outro:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSo come on, come on
\nSo come on, come on
\nSo come on, come on
\nSo come on, come on\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

In my personal opinion, this is Ben Gibbard at his absolute best. Sparse, honest, and absolutely agonizing.<\/p>\n

Since its release, Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em> has been near-universally accepted as Death Cab for Cutie\u2019s greatest work, and a seminal album of indie rock. While the band\u2019s fan base consistently ridicules them for their more recent, upbeat outputs (fans often ironically lament how they want Ben Gibbard to be miserable again), Gibbard himself remains realistic about the band\u2019s necessity for evolution. In a 2015 interview with Medium<\/a>, Gibbard offered this: <\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot be the 25-year-old who wrote Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em> as much as the fan can\u2019t be the 19-year-old college student going through a break-up again.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I implore you, while you have the opportunity to be that 19-or-20-or-however-old-college-student-going-through-a-break-up-or-whatever-else, listen to Transatlanticism<\/a><\/em> and be it.<\/p>\n

\"Death<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note: Arachnophonia is a regular feature on our blog where members of the UR community can share their thoughts about items in the Parsons Music Library\u2018s collection. All links included in these posts will take you to either the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61217,15223,15236],"tags":[38126,61217,61422,76054,162475,61424,38073,76055,15236,61421,38127,76053,231,61423,61343,37978,61370,76052],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arachnophonia","category-collection","category-guest-post","tag-alternative-rock","tag-arachnophonia","tag-ben-gibbard","tag-chris-walla","tag-cole","tag-dave-depper","tag-death-cab-for-cutie","tag-give-up","tag-guest-post","tag-indie-pop","tag-indie-rock","tag-jason-mcgerr","tag-music","tag-nick-harmer","tag-rock-music","tag-student-workers","tag-the-postal-service","tag-zac-rae"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgMV3E-oa","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3926,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}