•
Rating: Let's say someone is sad, also in poor health, the girl they like doesn't even look their way, and no one pays them any attention. Well, if life goes like this, there's not much to do, surely they're not among the lucky ones of society, particularly the American one. But sooner or later someone realizes this condition and makes a record, in my opinion the most "unluckily" beautiful album I've ever heard. Creep and Nirvana are easy solutions by now, punk has lost its strength, Beck is absent, the '80s are still in incubation before their return. Thus, Transatlanticism is born.
Death Cab For Cutie had already made a name for themselves with The Photo Album and the wonderful A Movie Script Ending, but apparently, that wasn't enough. Becoming true icons for those who are considered Emoboys in American society, those a bit unlucky, is quite a challenging mission. You can tell them to break everything, to fight society, or to close into themselves and suffer silently. But you can also tell them, who cares, since you can live your life even in illusion, and that's fine. Because you can imagine that the girl actually looks at you, that the football captain is a 40-year-old fat guy who only eats Big Macs. It's not quite like that, but after all, it's fine with you this way. You will leave that dreary province, and become a good person, earn respect. Now enjoy the moment, and don't let it get ruined. Love is yours, not others'.
What could be but isn't, what only you experience, and others don't even imagine.
This is what this album is, your way to escape from the drab everyday life. Occasionally, the shadow of sadness reappears, but there is that thread of hope, of renewal that is never cut. That moment of light that obscures all the rest.
Among arpeggios never so beautiful, subtle sampling, and a soft voice you get lost, close your eyes and live the life you wish for. One made of pedagogical sufferings, not in vain, those where your endless stories end in the best of ways, the one where you always rise again in the end. The carefully and wonderfully crafted sounds of this album lull you, you get lost in what remains of indie, because this album is not indie, but it's not everything else either.
For many people, Transatlanticism will mean nothing, it will just be a mass of songs that don't strike, too mushy at that. Not for you, though, this is the album of your life maybe, or at least it's the album of the life you want to imagine.
Your little Way of the Cross, there's the tear that falls, but always with a smile. You will always carry Death Cab For Cutie with you, and you will listen to them again when things finally go well because you knew: they were right.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The New Year (04:06)
So this is the new year
and I don't feel any different
the clanking of crystal
explosions off in the distance
in the distance...
so this is the new year
and I have no resolution
it's self-assigned penance?
for problems with easy solutions
so everybody put your best suit or dress on
let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
as thirty dialogues bleed into one
I wish the world was flat like the old days
so I could travel just by folding the map
no more airplanes or speed-trains or freeways
there'd be no distance that could hold us back
so this is the new year
02 Lightness (03:30)
There's a tear in the fabric of your favorite dress and I'm sneaking glances
I'm looking for the patterns in static: they start to make sense the longer I'm at it
Ivory lines lead...
Your heart is a river that flows from your chest through every organ
And your brain is the dam and I am the fish who can't reach the core
Ivory lines lead...
Oh, instincts are misleading; You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what you know you should want
Ivory lines lead...
Oh instincts are misleading; You shouldn't think what you're feeling
They don't tell you what you know you should want
Ivory lines lead...
04 Expo '86 (04:11)
Sometimes I think this cycle never ends
We slide from top to bottom and we turn and climb again
And it seems by the time that I have figured what it's worth
The squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse
But if I move my place in line I'll lose
And I have waited the anticipation's got me glued
I am waiting for something to go wrong
I am waiting for familiar resolve
Sometimes it seems that I don't have the skills to recollect
The twists and turns of plot that turned us from lovers to friends
I am thinking I should take that volume back up off the shelf
And crack its weary spine and read to help remind myself
But if I move, my place in line, I'll lose
And I have waited the anticipation's got me glued
I am waiting for something to go wrong
I am waiting for familiar resolve
I am waiting for another repeat,
Another diet fed by crippling defeat
And I am waiting for that sense of relief
I am waiting for you to flee the scene
As if you held in your hand the smoking gun
And on the floor laid the one you said you loved...
And it's strange - they're all basically the same
So I don't ask names anymore
Sometimes I think this cycle never ends
We slide from top to bottom and we turn and climb again
And it seems by the time that I have figured what its worth
The squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse
05 The Sound of Settling (02:12)
I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots; that my tongue is tied off
My brain's repeating if you've got an impulse, LET IT OUT!
but they never make it past my mouth
(Bop Ba...) This is the sound of settling (Bop Ba, bop ba...)
(Bop Ba...) This is the sound of settling (Bop Ba, bop ba...)
Our youth is fleeting, old age is just around the bend and I can't wait to go gray
And I'll sit an wonder of every love that could have been
If I'd only thought of something charming to say
(Bop Ba...) This is the sound of settling (Bop Ba, bop ba...)
(Bop Ba...) This is the sound of settling (Bop Ba, bop ba...)
I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots
06 Tiny Vessels (04:21)
This is the moment that you know
That you told her that you loved her but you don't
You touched her skin and then you think
That she is beautiful, but she don't mean a thing to me.
Yeah she is beautiful, but she don't mean a thing to me
I spent two weeks in Silverlake, the California sun cascading down my face
There was a girl with light brown streaks,
And she was beautiful, but she didn't mean a thing to me
Yeah she was beautiful, but she didn't mean a thing to me
I wanted to believe in all the words that I was speaking as we moved together in the dark
And all the friends that I was telling all the playful misspellings and every bite I gave that left a mark
Then tiny vessels oozed into your neck and formed the bruises that you said you didn't want to fade
But they did and so did I that day
All I see are dark gray clouds in the distance moving closer with every hour
So when you'd ask, "Is something wrong?" (I'd say)
"You're damn right there is, but we can't talk about it now. No we can't talk about it now."
So one last touch and then you'll go and we'll pretend that it meant something so much more
But it was vile and it was cheap and you are beautiful but you don't mean a thing to me
Yeah, you are beautiful but you don't mean a thing to me.
Yeah, you are beautiful but you don't mean a thing to me.
07 Transatlanticism (07:55)
The Atlantic was born today, and I'll tell you how
The clouds above opened up and let it out
I was standing on the surface of a perforated sphere
When the water filled every hole
And thousands upon thousands made an ocean
Making islands where no islands should go (oh no...)
Most people were overjoyed; they took to their boats
I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat
The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flatlands to your
Door have been silenced for evermore
And the distance is quite simply much to far for me to row;
It seems farther than ever before (oh no...)
I need you so much closer...
So come on; come on...
08 Passenger Seat (03:41)
I roll the window down and then begin to breathe in
the darkest country road and the strong scent of evergreen
from the passenger seat as you are driving me home
Then looking upwards I strained my eyes and try to
tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites
from the passenger seat as you are driving me home
Do they collide? I ask and you smile.
With my feet on the dash, the world doesn't matter.
When you feel embarrassed then I'll be your pride
When you need directions then I'll be the guide for all time
for all time...
10 We Looked Like Giants (05:32)
God bless the daylight, the sugary smell of springtime
remembering when you were mine in a still suburban town
When every Thursday, I'd brave those mountain passes
and you'd skip your early classes and we'd learn how our bodies worked
God damn the black night, with all its foul temptations
I've become what I always hated when I was with you then
We looked like giants in the back of my grey subcompact
fumbling to make contact as the others slept inside
and together there in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
and I held you closer than anyone would ever get
Do you remember the J.A.M.C. and reading aloud from magazines
I don't know about you but I swear on my name they could smell it on me
But I've never been to good with secrets... ohh...
Oh together there in a shroud of frost, the mountain air
began to pass through every pane of weathered glass
and I held you closer...
Loading comments slowly
