My not so secret hopelessly romantic self jumped at the opportunity to review the solo album of that guy behind Death Cab For Cutie’s ‘Transatlaticism’, probably one of my personal greatest love songs of all time. Apart from 15 years of Death Cab, Benjamin Gibbard has a great track record of side projects, including The Postal Service with a cult status and ¡All-Time Quarterback!. His solo project certainly had a lot to live up to and as much as I would love to say otherwise – it sadly didn’t.
The album opens with an a cappella, self-sampled ‘Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby’ in which Gibbard sums up the whole rest of the album: ‘And under my umbrella / I sing a cappella / This melancholy whimsical tune’. The first single off the album ‘Teardrop Windows’ has the catchiest verse melody and is one of few memorable songs from the whole record. ‘Bigger Than Love’, a duet with Aimee Mann, is another highlight, but unfortunately Aimee outshines Ben in this post-marital autopsy – her voice conveys the hard earned truths, failures and disappointments, whereas Ben seems to have learned absolutely nothing.
Musically there’s a lot going on inspirations-wise. ‘Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke)’ features a Mariachi band, bringing the sun-kissed lightness and rhythm to the song’s melancholy. ‘Duncan, Where Have You Gone?’ smells of washed out, pastel 60s. There’s even some country on ‘Broken Yolk In A Western Sky’.
But despite the diverse inspirations, the album just blends in. On the lyrical side nothing really stands out and you would expect a lot from someone who’s been writing outstanding lyrics for Death Cab for the past 9 years. When I’m preparing to review an album I listen to it a lot. I take it out with me to experience it in all circumstances and conditions. There comes a point when the music clicks and starts to live its own life in my head – I associate it with places, moods, weather, it corresponds to some fragment of my everyday life… There’s no such connection with Former Lives. I’ve got on right my headphones as I type, this very moment, and I still can’t sink my teeth into it.
I’m not denying, the problem might have been the great expectation and a huge potential. Former Lives follows Gibbard‘s very public divorce from Zooey Deschanel and since he once beautifully deconstructed a relationship in ‘The Glove Compartment’ and Death Cab is known for pushing lyrical boundaries – I was expecting a greater depth. The album is strangely familiar, yet even more oddly impersonal. I know a solo project aside from a band (and Death Cab is apparently still going strong, thankfully) is meant to be something different. But Gibbard sounds very much like himself as we know him, the lyrics sound much below his abilities and when it comes to the music – it’s just missing something and that something might simply be the band.
Death Cab For Cutie are responsible for some great songs. Songs that match moments in your life and decide to pop up in your head just because. For that reason on every 1st of January since 2004 I need to play to myself ‘The New Year’. Every time I miss someone I just start to sing ‘I Need You So Much Closer’. After listening to Former Lives repeatedly – I get nothing. The album finishes out of the blue and you don’t remember a single verse after the first listen, and not a great deal more after tenth. And for that reason, after trying and failing to connect with Gibbard solo, I’ll just go and rediscover The Postal Service. It’s been too long.
Former Lives is out now and available through here.
Review by Magda Wrzeszcz
