Former Lives

Former Lives

     Benjamin Gibbard, lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie, had been hoarding a collection of misfit songs for many years leading up to the release of his solo album Former Lives. In the time between when Gibbard began writing the songs and their actual release, Death Cab for Cutie released three separate studio albums. The artist said in an interview that Former Lives, truly spans "eight years, three relationships, living in two different places, drinking then not drinking" giving the album its unique yet scatter-brained quality. His past, that couldn’t be expressed within Death Cab’s established box of their brand, is able to be housed in this album and thus set free to be heard.

     Elements of this 2012 album allude to the Modernism despite being created in a different time period. Modernism is a philosophical movement that arose in the late 19^th and early 20^th century from the great changes that were occurring in Western society. A characteristic of modernist thinking is their rejection of traditional ways of viewing the world as well as of established forms of faith, art, literature, social activities, innovation, and thinking. Ben Gibbard attempts to revive this approach of swimming against the current of the rest of society in order to remove ourselves from the belief that we have to alter ourselves to fit into the mold that our culture promotes. At the same time, the singer also touches on the areas in which Modernists labeled wrong to reveal what these thinkers were missing and lacking in their perception of the world. 

     The album opens with a fifty second a cappella introduction, “Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby” that Ben Gibbard made on his phone as he was walking through the neighborhood in London one day. It has a breathy barbershop quartet quality to it making me imagine a total of four Ben Gibbards standing before me. By eliminating all of the music and instrumentals in this piece, Gibbard’s stripped down song is reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway’s plain, blunt writing style. Hemingway was a writer of the Lost Generation, an ideology of disillusionment that merged with Modernism. He turned away from any ornamental language in his works as a way of trying to find meaning amidst chaos of a new society. In this track Gibbard sings about how the person he loves is “an ocean away” back in the U.S. but he hopes that she knows he is constantly thinking of her. My one complaint is that the song really is over before you have a chance to think to really enjoy it. The topics of love and London make another appearance in the album in “Duncan, Where Have You Gone?” a piece about an old friend Gibbard hasn’t seen in a while who lives in London now. In this moody, piano-heavy song, Gibbard speaks to Duncan, assuring him “there's someone for you to love//Whom you will find in due time.” His friend running off to London could be related to how many of the writers and artists of the Lost Generation and modernist movement, including Ernest Hemingway, were expatriates who left the United States after World War I to settle in Europe.

     Overall a disappointment in the music or instrumentals unfortunately threads throughout most of the album. Both of the acoustic guitar introductions to “Lady Adelaide” and “Lily” share an uncanny resemblance to the melody in “I Will Follow You into the Dark” off Death Cab’s 2005 album, Plans. Despite my undying love and appreciation for the band’s simple classic, Gibbard’s recycling of music left me feeling rather unimpressed. In “Lily” Gibbard coos about how he wants to tell this girl how much he loves her. The singer says, “‘Cause whenever she is there with me//I know where I'm supposed to be,” which could demonstrate the extent of value that humans place on love. Love, along with many other fundamental values, was considered insignificant or unable by Modernists in terms of giving them a sense of purpose in life in the 19th and 20th century. Yet, Gibbard is promoting love as a vital part of life that is more important than what Modernists wrote it off to be. 

     In “Teardrop Windows” Gibbard pays tribute to the Seattle Smith Tower, sympathizing with the building like a dear friend about how it has been left in the dust since the Space Needle was built taller and brighter. This track begins like a big rock song with heavy bass guitar chords, but peaks from there to become more of a slow jam or a smooth rock song with little hints of folk influence sprinkled on top. Gibbard is from Washington and lived in Seattle for several years before moving to Los Angeles once he married Zooey Deschanel. The year "Former Lives" came out; however, the dynamic pair divorced after just three years. Perhaps the artist feels like a part of himself was forgotten in Seattle during the move to a more glamorous city just as the once beloved tower is now neglected standing in the shadow of the Needle. Modernism resulted partly in response to the industrialization and urbanization that was up and coming in Western society. Therefore, skyscrapers like the Seattle Smith Tower represent the growth of cities that fueled this type of new thinking. In addition, the tower was built in 1914 at the beginning of War I, an event that is considered a spark for Modernism as well. However, although Gibbard explicitly sings about the building, it is possible he is also singing about a person who is feeling “all alone” and “oh so empty.”
  In “Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke)” Gibbard sings about living “in the valley” of Los Angeles, yet the mariachi band instruments mixed with the country rhythms do not scream anything remotely close to “L.A.” or “Cali.” He describes how the city is a beautiful place but something doesn’t feel right, which could connect with the style of music not fitting the types of sounds like indie, pop, and hip hop that one might normally associate with Los Angeles. His struggles with not being able to connect with society around him correlate with the alienation and self consciousness that Modernists felt from cultural shocks like the War and a boom in societal advancements. The song shows how easy it is to find ourselves feeling lost and empty in society, whether we experience major changes in our surroundings and culture or not. It suggests the way for us to go forth and stop ourselves from being stuck in this disconnected mindset is to critically examine our life values and behaviors in relation to what values the rest of society holds true and how our peers act.

     “Bigger Than Love” sheds light on Modernism as well when Ben Gibbard reveals snapshots of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s relationship, rather than his own. Although the artist does not explictly mention the two individuals by name in the song, Gibbard revealed in an interview that he based the track on a book of love letters between the couple called Dear Scott, Dear Zelda. F. Scott Fitzgerald is also a writer of the Lost Generation like Ernest Hemingway who is known for his turbulent lifestyle apart from his famous novels. The song’s verses depict how destructive the Fitzgeralds’ marriage really was from struggling with alcoholism and mental illness to not being able to handle raising a child together. However, these lines contrast with the consistent upbeat tempo and a positive chorus that says, “It's bigger than love//Brighter than all the stars combined” gives hope that their broken love is not “beyond repair.” 
     This track is a duet, featuring Aimee Mann, which works nicely as it’s like the singers are F. Scott and Zelda telling their own story. Zelda's major presence in the song of her point-of-view shows a significant deviation for the submissive role she played in her marriage. It is said that Zelda contributed greatly to F. Scott Fitzgerald's brilliant writing, yet she never received much recognition nor was given the chance to publish more than one novel of her own. In contrast, Aimee Mann (in the voice Zelda) begins the song, and sings multiple verses by herself, almost overshadowing Benjamin Gibbard. This characteristic of the song reveals some of the faults in Modernist thinking. Although F. Scott Fitzgerald as a Modernist writer went against accepted beliefs in his writing, such as criticizing greed and money in the age of materialism, we can see through his novels and relationships that he did not challenge the ideology of women being dependent and less in society. Ben Gibbard, thus attempts to shed a new light on Modernism in terms of what Modernist artists neglected to discuss and challenge in their works.

     The last three songs of the album all seem to be about some experience of Gibbard’s love life again, most likely surrounding his divorce to Zooey Deschanel. In “Broken Yolk in a Western Sky” Gibbard uses light, country twang instrumentals to give a dark confession about messing up and accepts all the fault and blame for the falling out of his relationship. “I’m Building a Fire” ends the album in full circle, as the song is very brief just like how the Former Lives started with “Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby" at under one minute. The concluding track illustrates a picture of what seems like a past relationship as Gibbard sings, “In the morning you'll wake with the ashes of a memory//And the sun on your face and I will not seem so far away.”

     Through his direct allusions to the Seattle Smith Tower in “Teardrop Windows” and the Fitzgeralds in “Bigger Than Love”, a theme of Modernism is revealed that can be connected to the rest of the songs of the album. Gibbard transports us back to this time period and way of thinking, showing how some of the values and ideas that Modernists once promoted still are relevant in our society today while suggesting it is important for us to grow this way of thinking by investigating the topics on which Modernists neglected to change.