#dave depper

rip to the set list that should’ve been MINE

I get to see this man again for the millionth time THIS WEEKEND 😭💕

Death Cab for Cutie performed at the Factory in Chesterfield/St. Louis on Oct. 13, 2022. Originally photographed for Arch City Media. 

Death Cab for Cutie, The Met, September 29th, 2022.

“Your Voice on the Radio” has a bright and clean surface, prettier and poppier than I usually like, but it only serves to amplify the stark loneliness of its two narrators, whose voices seem to speak past one another. It’s a narrative predicated on dramatic irony, one made poignant by how clear it is to us that its characters are meant for each other...and yet they’ll never meet. Its polished surface hides a hollow core: the loneliness and disaffection of modern life, surrounded by luxury but starving for human connections. A song like “Your Voice on the Radio,” where the role of music itself is so central, is a bit reminiscent of the tradition of visual artists who painted scenes of painters’ studios and their models, or the many works of Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Twelfth Night, which have acting and performance of plays as key elements of their stories. For all its tragedy, the song is also a reminder of the power of music to create intimacy and a mirror to our own emotions, even as we are, ostensibly, alone.