I Built You A Tower

Sound DNA

• Rock

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<b>The 11th Death Cab album is a rumination on grief, and on the very act of rumination.</b> The first three words Ben Gibbard sings on Death Cab for Cutie’s <i>I Built You a Tower</i> are a plea and a mission statement: “Please forgive me.” The song, <b>“Full of Stars,”</b> is a postmortem of both his marriage and the split itself; he takes accountability for his role in unraveling the relationship, as well as the opportunity to explain. “I tried to mend these broken fences/You claimed I’d built a wall,” he continues. “As if my aim all along/Was to keep you somewhere/You no longer wished to be.” Gibbard may be seeking forgiveness, but <i>I Built You a Tower</i> paints a more complicated portrait: He is working through every stage of grief while also trying to forgive himself, <i>and</i> cannonballing into the most urgent and refreshing music Death Cab for Cutie has written in years. From start to finish, <i>I Built You a Tower</i> underlines how there are no clear heroes and villains in heartbreak, all without reading like a list of grievances. The melodies paired with these emotional excavations swing from euphoric (<b>“The Flavor of Metal,”</b> <b>“Trap Door”</b>) to frantic and discordant (<b>“Punching the Flowers,” “How Heavenly a State”</b>). Disbelief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance course through the lyrics, with Gibbard never shying away from them as his mirror. And on the album-closing <b>“I Built You a Tower (b),”</b> he confesses the truth he’s spent the whole album writing towards: “I’m learning how to/Live without you/But these ruminations/Are all about you.” Amidst the pain and devastation, <i>I Built You a Tower</i> manages to hold two things at once: Death Cab for Cutie’s capacity penning for stark, brutally candid songs, and the cathartic joy the indie rock stalwarts clearly feel in playing them.

via Apple Music

Tracklist