i’m giving you a mixtape (part 2)

2. Death Cab For Cutie
“Brothers on a Hotel Bed”
[Atlantic; 2005]

“Brothers on a Hotel Bed” turns the longing for longevity in relationships on its head. Gibbard, Death Cab’s frontman, brings up portent questions about growing old with someone – what happens when beauty fades and sex no longer remains? Will memories be enough to carry us, and will we stay in love, even if your face falls off?

You may tire of me as our December sun is setting because I’m not who I used to be No longer easy on the eyes these wrinkles masterfully disguise
the youthful boy below … Cause now we say goodnight from our own separate sides Like brothers on a hotel bed

3. Arcade Fire
“My Body is a Cage”
[Merge; 2007]

For a solid year, Win Butler and his wife wrote a song every day. During that time, they converted a church in Canada into a home and music space, and purchased a cathedral organ to add to their impressive texture palette and expansive ruckus.

“My Body is a Cage” is a slow burning build from start to finish, the groove of the song waiting to kick in halfway through. This only enhances Butler’s examination of his own bodily entrapment while the whole world watches him perform.

4. The Frames
“What Happens When the Heart Just Stops”
[Overcoat / Plateau; 2001]

Hansard’s gem from The Birds is a fitting companion to the poems in It’s Not You, It’s Me. It speaks to the aftermath of relationships; when “the heart gives up / but the body goes on living / the blood crawls to a slow and stops / and floats away.” The reality with any relationship for Hansard is that it ends in his own disappointment.

5. Jars of Clay
“Oh My God”
[Essential; 2006]

Not many songwriters in this generation are concerned with issues of systemic injustice, let alone start successful nonprofits like Blood Water Mission, which builds wells in Africa. Nor do they write sprawlers that exegete errs of our age – lusting after riches, ignoring the downtrodden, and oppressing the poor.

As the midsection of his lament goes silent, Haseltine gives voice to the voiceless when he enables a mother to cry out for the hurting, the dirty, and the dying.

Liars and fools; sons and failures Thieves will always say Lost and found; ailing wanderers Healers always say
Whores and angels; men with problems Broken hearted; separated Orphans always say War creators; racial haters
Preachers always say Distant fathers; fallen warriors Givers always say Pilgrim saints; lonely widows Users always say

It would make sense for the song to end with a pseudo-American messianic hope, but it never does. It starts with failure, and finishes with cries to God because of the inability of humanity to heal itself. It is not a prayer or request. It is a lament.

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