Среда 17 Окт 2007, 0:14

transatlanticism by death cab for cutie
Week of 9/30 to 10/6

I've put off this review for way too long, but not without reasons. First, the way I feel about this album definitely impacted the difficulty of expressing how I feel about it. Plus, there's the loads of schoolwork and stress resulting from it adding onto that. I've told myself that I'd do it the next for the past two weeks and a half now, maybe more, maybe less. I lost count. I've decided to cut to chase about it the best I can, so I can say what I want to say and have it done at the same time. First off, I love this album. I've listened to it about 7 or 8 times now in it's entirety, and I can easily say the quality of the album and the afore mentioned affect on me have earned it a hard to earn high rank in my canon of my favorite albums. There was just something so vaguely home-like, so warm, so sometimes unnervingly familiar, and without a doubt, penetrating and haunting about it. That was easy for me to figure out. ANY good album will make you enjoy it if it posesses those qualities. What was hard to figure out was the intense personal connection I felt with it. This album is about a long distance relationship. Being in love, losing it, trying to get over it, but still missing it. I have never had a boyfriend for very long, much less ever fallen in love with one, and much more less, have had to endure the pain of physical seperation from one. So why on Earth would I continue to put in my headphones and play this little album about LOVE, a subject I hardly ever want to hear about lately and lay back and have the feeling that this music painted the very portrait of me and my life as it is at this point in time?

I asked myself this question every night, and never got an answer, until last night. That elusive, vital answer finally came to me. It turns out I AM dealing with long distance relationships…just not long distance in the physical sense. As I get older, I'm losing things I have gotton accustomed to slowly, just like the person who tells his story in this album is losing a lover has gotton accustomed to and held dear for so long. Namely, the relationships with the people I love. It seems sometimes the ghosts of the way things used to be with a family member or friend you love hang around long after the both of you are aware of the fact that you are losing ground with each other emotionally.

The ghosts of the storyteller's lover never fail to haunt him, even though he does his best to go on with life and shake them. He wants things back the way they used to be desperately, even though he knows it's not going to happen. That's the more abstract way of looking about it, anyway. That's pretty much all I can say, really. It's hard to describe the individual songs. This album has reached the point with me to where I can no longer objectively describe it. Although the things I love about it most are the lyrics. Ben Gibbard has to be one of my personal favorite lyricists. The music on this album is relatively simple, but effective in providing the backdrop and overall atmosphere for the sad, but all too common story told in the most unassuming but eloquent way. My favorite song is the one that describes the point of hanging onto past memories to cope with the gradual loss of what is slipping away from you, the gentle reverie, passenger seat.

I'm sorry I wrote such a mushy review. I fully admit I just can't be objective about this album. haha. I'll gladly leave the dissection to others. I'll just lay back and soak this lovely music in without worrying about it too much….

There were obviously no artists for the next two weeks.

Artist of the Week for 10/14 to 10/20: The Beatles