Bigger Than Love

Benjamin Gibbard

It’s new music Friday and Death Cab For Cutie is releasing their 10th LP called ASPHALT MEADOWS. I haven’t had a chance to play the album yet, but it got me thinking about Gibbard’s solo record FORMER LIVES. I often think of this song which is about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda’s correspondence detailed in their book of letters called DEAR SCOTT, DEAR ZELDA. It’s a book I became very excited to read at one point, but now we have this incredible song. And I think it’s enough for me. This back and forth with Aimee Mann is devastating and paints quite a picture of their doomed relationship. The story’s right here in five minutes and it still moves me — sad, beautiful, tragic.

It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind

I live with my memories, the bustling fervor of New York
Where on 59th street we quarreled and broke the bathroom door
'Cause you were just drinking 'til you could hardly see
Oh how much I loved you but I couldn't bring myself to leave
It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind
Our summers in Paris, the Seine overflowing with champagne
And I knew you stepped out but you knew that I had done the same
And we had a child there but we couldn't raise her on our own
So our house got crowded and I'd never felt so all alone
It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind
It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind
Stranded in Asheville failing to fix a broken head
You're in California doing the work of lesser men
Oh what of our daughter, oh what of the love that we once shared?
It's living inside us battered but not beyond repair
Our fate decreed
A singularity
A solemn tune
I play at night and dance around the room
It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind
It's bigger than love
Brighter than all the stars combined
It's dwarfing the sun
Burning within my heart and mind