Video: Death Cab for Cutie: "Cath"
Marriage may be "what brings us together," as the clergyman in The Princess Bride (the movie and the Cloud Cult song both) so memorably phrased it. But as anybody who knows anything about the human condition will tell you, that ain't always the case. I've already called nuptials-related bummer "Cath" the best song on Death Cab for Cutie's latest LP, Narrow Stairs, and this is the straightforward yet affecting video the track deserves. Ben Gibbard and his bandmates all sit mouthing the lyrics, but the focus is, rightly, on a church scene like the one so vividly depicted in the song. For me, the visuals complement the ones the lyrics had already put in my head. The clip also fleshes out the narrator's role by showing a nervous-looking young man looking on as the not-so-happy bride does the wrong thing, the same thing he'd have done. Elaine! Elaine! Son of a bitch.
[from Narrow Stairs; out now on Atlantic]