Conundrum/Congratulations

Which came first, the music or the misery?  A famous question from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, many times the music is greater when the misery comes first. Some of the greatest, most heartfelt, honest songs and albums have grown from that pit-of-darkness, that inescapable sense of despair. Without it, artists like Elliott Smith, Radiohead and countless others never would have written the albums we love to hear and vent our own miseries to.

But what happens when these musicians take the Partridge Family’s lead and (gasp!) get happy? Bands like Aerosmith certainly took a turn for the worse after kicking their drug habits, but what about misery addition? What happens then? 

 

Zooey and Ben...Gettin' hitched!

Time will certainly tell for Ben Gibbard, the lonesome bard for Death Cab for Cutie. It will be interesting to see if the indie rocker’s repertoire will still consist of cleverly poetic, albeit unrequited, love songs as the shaggy haired frontman has recently become engaged to actress and She & Him chanteuse, Zooey Deschanel. 

Wipe your tears, though, indie boys. Deschanel may be off the market, but it may not mean the end of Gibbard's lonesome cries. Hopefully, though, it will lead to a guest spot on the band's next album, sickeningly cute though it may be. Misery or no, may this new mine produce even greater Death Cab fodder than that found on Narrow Stairs.