Ben Gibbard and Death Cab for Cutie reflect on relationships again with the introspective, melodic tomb that is I Built You a Tower. Another failed relationship later, the definitive rock band does what it does best: make memorable songs about relationships.
Death Cab for Cutie are definitive to alt-rock the same way The Pixies are. The major difference lies in their disposition of this world and their perception of it. After Ben Gibbard’s second divorce, we are looking at an album that is deeply personal, uses a major contextual shift, and might also reflect the departure of Chris Walla. “I Built Your Tower” has to be listened to in the same way a novel is read, and Gibbard has given us the bookends.
Music made by heartbreak
It is coincidental how Death Cab for Cutie has always been associated lyrically, thematically, and by origin with heartbreak. Ben Gibbard founded this band after the first major heartbreak of his life, and here we are more than 20 years later. As an independent band, they found success like very few of their compatriots. Transatlanticism shattered all expectations and made the late 90s generation crave more emo, heartbreak, and alt-rock. Between this and The Postal Service, Ben Gibbard was responsible for putting an acoustic guitar in the hands of many teenagers.
21 years later, just like that song in the album Plans, you hear Ben’s saccharine voice coming through with “Full of Stars”. It’s that songwriter you knew from so many years ago. His vocal sensibilities and the way he plays the acoustic alone in front of a mic haven’t aged a day. The opening lyrics themselves are “please forgive me”, and that might say a lot as the welcome mat in front of this tower. When Apple Music’s Zane Lowe spoke to Death Cab for Cutie, the goal of the album seems to be different from the post-breakup Kintsugi. Here it isn’t music to crib, complain, or cry. This is explaining how Gibbard feels in the aftermath of this divorce.
Not just moody tunes
However, don’t be mistaken. Gibbard isn’t holding a silent funeral. If anything, he is punching the flowers. With a tangy and nasty guitar riff, Punching the Flowers is addictively high tempo and unapologetically what this band is supposed to sound like. Released as a single, it might have caught a lot of fans off guard from what the actual theme of the album is. A lot of these songs are more than one layer deep. Songs like Pep Talk are undoubtedly messages of reassurance for Ben himself, struggling with his own identity and reflecting on failed love through his music, yet and yet and yet again.
It is incredible how Death Cab for Cutie have retained their identity even through lineup changes, personal moments, and rifts over the years. Lyrically, they are still that band that can explain how heartbreak feels even if you have never gone through it. Choice of unique rhythms, Ben’s iconic voice, and a willingness to poetically describe some of life’s most vulnerable moments will never be lost on their fans. If it’s the ivory tower of idolising that Ben is talking about, that’s what comes out in part A of “I Built You a Tower”. We have just started climbing the stairs.
The aura of defining alt rock
In the groove of Envy The Birds, bassist Nick Harmer gives us a bass line to take flight on. The funky outline remains throughout the song while the band never loses its zany, honest, and definitive view on life. Deeply personal lyrics set this record in line with some of their best. Even if Ben Gibbard is at his lowest, he has proven time and again that he can write some of the grooviest and most emotive songs as part of this aural therapy. Like the surface tension of water, he imagines all these hurtful memories to glide over him like stones on water. If as a listener it hurts this much, imagine what Ben must have gone through while writing the song.
Miss those early years when Death Cab for Cutie used to have those changing dark riffs? Wait no more. How Heavenly a State might be one of my favourite tracks from this record because of how it contrasts as a driving heavy song with a soft receding introspection. It was difficult not to feel like I was listening to Gorillaz when Trap Door played next. It has that electro-synthwave spine that you might not have heard since Asphalt Meadows.
I’ve really enjoyed how this band either pushes in or pulls back to be Ben’s support system, finding his own way to process this. I might be late to the party, but this is around the time when the symbol of the tower started to change for me. It becomes a tomb or a memory rather than the idol of respect and reverence that Gibbard has for his ex-wife, and the relationships end.
Withdrawing, and witnessing
We have reached a fracture point. Whether it is the lyrics or the natural monotony of the background, Riptides is where Death Cab for Cutie represents distance the best. The waves are too choppy, and there is no resolution from the storm that is created. “Riptides” is a great song to listen to, but everything in this song is the worst thing you can go through. He depicts the split perfectly with a lyric like “Roughly half the time, there is a fatal flaw in my heart’s design.”
Hats off to Nick again after this song for the bass line, which is something I’m going to need the recipe for. The bass line carries the song and the groove and mirrors the tempo perfectly. The floating, echoing elements in the song are something to deeply resonate with. It also does a powerful job of catching you off guard as the penultimate track of this album.
I Built You a Tower (b) makes sure its theme, as an entirety, is not taken lightly. It is disconcerting, scary, and expensive. Remember the ocean he talked about during Riptide? It now fades. The tower stands alone like a lighthouse as Ben paddles away from it. Is he going to another shore? It honestly doesn’t matter. What matters is if he will ever be able to subside the storm ravaging his heart. Quite a powerful and poignant journey by Death Cab for Cutie:
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