“Godspeed” by Anberlin, Monday, February 20, 2023 + Cities Track by Track

 

I'm working on a new system for my blog so that I stop saying the same thing over and over again. I don't always have time to research an album cycle or the artist around the time of the album cycle, but I have written considerably about certain albums and artists. I want to provide links to those posts in album posts, like today's. I haven't written a lot about the tracks on Anberlin's seminal record Cities, but it still is one of my favorite albums. In the future, this post can be a jumping-off point for other tracks on the record. I could write books on each track and my experiences with them, but today you'll just get a few sentences about each. Enjoy the album as it turns sixteen today.

1. (Début). For about a minute and a half, Anberlin introduces us to a dark world in an instrumental composed of city sound effects and noisy guitars. The song reminds me of Jerry Martin's Sim City 4 soundtrack. (Début) leads into "Godspeed."

2. "Godspeed." I wrote about "Godspeed" in November. It's a pretty jarring song to follow any track, but following yesterday's sleepy song is especially going to give my listeners a slap in the face. "Godspeed" is a cautionary tale about the rock star lifestyle that has claimed the lives of the band's heroes. 

3. "Adelaide." The transition from "Godspeed" to "Adelaide" is also a strange one. The song reminds me of the pop-punk choruses of bands like The All-American Rejects, whom Anberlin toured with from time to time. Cities was released in late February, and "Adelaide" always reminded me of a spring break anthem. The lyrics, singer Stephen Christian wrote about a tendency he had to become self-absorbed. The band also had a deep love for Australia, so "Adelaide" was a kind of tribute to the city.

4. "A Whisper & a Clamour" is one of my favorite Anberlin songs. Lyrically, it's not the most original on the record, but it seems to encapsulate the theme of the record--alienation during the most connected time in history--most succinctly. 

5. "The Unwinding Cable Car." While acoustic guitars could be heard on (Début) and brilliantly on "A Whisper & a Clamour," "The Unwinding Cable Car" is the first time Anberlin wrote an acoustic ballad. It's kind of a bulky song lyrically, but I believe it was the track that returned the band to Air1 because of the Christian themes in the song. 

6. "There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss." This was the first storytelling song Anberlin attempted. They never played it live until their first farewell tour due to Stephen Christian's dislike for the song.

7. "Hello Alone" was one of Anberlin's heaviest songs up until that point. Mixing the sound of sirens with a guitar, "Hello Alone" builds on the theme of being alone in a heavily populated place. It's a dark song, but the last line tells us: "For the lesser known / I'm here and there's hope."

8. "Alexithymia" is another slow point in the album. It's an existential crisis in a song, and a bit anti-climactic after "Hello Alone," though it serves as the hope of the album, "There's more to living than being alive," also the theme to Stephen Christian's debut novel: Orphan Anything's Memoirs of a Lesser Known.

9. "Reclusion" was at one point my least favorite track on the record, but there's still a lot to like about it. The reference to Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, the shredding guitar solo, and the unapologetic introversion and frustration with other people make this song one of the most relatable tracks on the record.

10. "Inevitable." This is Anberlin's prom/wedding song. It's simple. It's romantic. It features uncredited vocals by Copeland's Aaron Marsh. The drums at the end are pretty cool, particularly watching them being recorded on the bonus DVD.

11. "Dismantle.Repair." is one of Stephen Christian's best-written songs. It details falling in love with someone and parting ways. I always thought of it as a spring song and a heavier Goo Goo Dolls song. I thought it could have been on Top 40 stations, except for the guitars which go hard, blaring as if it's a competition. But that's what I love about Cities is that it could be a pop record, but the band and producer Aaron Sprinkle make it as heavy as possible for the band in their genre. 

12. (*Fin). Cities ends with the 8-minute epic (*Fin), a song in which Stephen Christian wrestles with his faith, making sense of stories in his past. I often feel that every song on the record has a city. "Godspeed" is New York, and "Adelaide" is the city in Australia. I think of "A Whisper & a Clamour" being in Paris. (*Fin) is the Dublin. Stephen channels Bono. Bono struggles with his faith throughout U2's music, and (*Fin) is the song of doubt for Anberlin."