Word of the Day
Plangent (adj., PLAN-gent)
LOUD AND BOOMING...or sad and melancholy. Why not both? Good question! It can be!
Gif of the Day
JumpThrough the windowCarsUnconventional entry methodsNailed itCall me Flynn?
Link of the Day
Anberlin Lyrics
Anberlin never made it truly big but they put together a fascinating, solid career—and got to end it on their own terms. Before their final album, the group announced that Lowborn would be their final record and that they'd be doing one last tour. After finishing four years ago, the group has done other things. There is no whiff of a reunion show, tour, or album. They are done.
Few bands get to call their shots like that. You do not always get to say when you are done, much less do other things. What Anberlin did—to wrap up their own career—is curious.
But there are things that aren't wrapped up: namely, lyrics. It is the glory of kings to seek out the things that the almighty has concealed, and song lyrics are perhaps the most popular example of this. Except Anberlin's lead singer Stephen Christian literally wrote out what everything meant on a Tumblr page. For a band that had some interesting lyrical work over the years, that kind of carte blanche is...weird.
And this makes it a surprising experience. Instead of speculation on Genius pages and crazed crime board conspiracy theorizing (which produces an Aha, ok now I'm bored reaction), Christian's method both feels like a peek behind the curtain and a leaving unsaid (which produces a huh, I appreciate that more now reaction). It's fascinating how different it plays when the writer tells you something but not everything—and he did this for all 100+ songs in their catalog.
We're going to try and stop before we wax eloquent on why "Cities" is one of the best albums at capturing the challenges of modern urban post-adolescence. Go start exploring the annotations.
MusicAnberlinLyricsSo that's what it meansPay no attention to the man behind the curtainHe owed this to himself?