The Oxhorn Music Mix

A lot of people have trouble with The Dismemberment Plans’ lead singer Travis Morrison (now of the Hellfighters). His voice grates. He released “the worst solo album. ever.” Other people find The Plan’s music full of anxiety. Or depressing.

Maybe.

But on this paean to a special soul in a big city, The Plan spin perfect poetry. With a simple guitar riff, distinctive drumming, a fat, dirty synth and heart-wrenching, vivid, lucid lyrics. Lyrics few writers have the depth or melancholy to draft.

Now I notice the streetlamp’s hum
The ghosts of graffiti they couldn’t quite erase
The blank-faced stares on the subway
As the people go home
The parks lay empty like my unmade bed
The streets are silent like my lifeless telephone
And this is where I live, but
I’ve never felt less at home
So I’m not unsympathetic
I see why you left
There’s no one to know
There’s nothing to do
The city’s been dead
Since you’ve been gone…

Sometimes I stand on my roof at night
And watch, as something seems to happen somewhere else
I feel like the breeze will pick me up and carry me away
Out and over this iridescent grid
Up and away from the bar fights and neon lights
Out and away from everything that makes me what I am
So I’m not unsympathetic
I see why you left
There’s no one to know
There’s nothing to do
The city’s been dead
Since you’ve been gone…

These are stark, stark words to describe a city no longer inhabited by anyone of emotional significance. A city that lacks its relevant animus. A mere entropic collection of humanity and decay. And yet it’s oddly beautiful.

All I Ever Say Now is Good-bye

As the song drives to its jerky conclusion, the drums hit: bang bang bang. Then sleek, drawn out notes float in, build up. Screams of “Good bye” rend the air. And then a gentle let down, like letting go, walking away from a lover forever, without looking back.

Sounds like the love child of: Controlling the Famous and Fugazi

Download The City

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Photo by Kampers

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