The title song from one of my all-time favorite albums, Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie, is today’s dig in deep Top 5. I’d share whether this is my favorite track on the album, but I can’t, because I can never find a favorite. I love every song on the album so much. This is definitely a “no-skip” record.

Do you have a favorite track on Transatlanticism?

“I need you so much closer.”

“Transatlanticism” by Death Cab For Cutie
from the album, Transatlanticism (2003)
My Top 5 – March 16, 2011

1. “Transatlanticism” will always remind me of a specific time in my life, and a certain long-distance relationship I was in. Hearing this song still pulls at my heartstrings and the bittersweet nature of all of it, though it admittedly does not make me ache with sadness as it once did. Not as much, at least. The song will always represent that time, though, and the feelings I had then, no matter how much time passes. Some songs are like that. Music as a memory marker.

2. “Transatlanticism” also reminds me of one of the lessons I learned through the experience of a long-distance love. Most notably, that it is not for me. I’m an in-person kind of girl. And, although I have many friends who live miles and miles from me who mean the world, and always will (and who I feel deeply connected to) – for me, with a love/lover relationship, I need it to be close (“I need it so much closer”). I’m just not built for long-distance love. The missing, and the time between, and the communication struggles, and all the constant goodbyes, they all just hurt too much for me.

3. On a less personal note, the use of “Transatlanticism” on ‘Six Feet Under’ (HBO series) is on m list of favorite music on-screen moments in TV and film. The song does not just play as a background/soundtrack in the scene, but it is part of the scene just as much as the room they are painting is, and as much as the characters are. It is part of the high just as much as the ecstasy is. And, the lyrics convey more meaning with these characters a the time then any of the dialogue.

4. This entire album Transatlanticism, by Death Cab For Cutie, in its entirety, is part of my musical DNA now. I love it so much. All of the songs hit on moments, and feelings, from my life so vividly, and so deeply.

5. The song “Translanticism” is in my top 10 list of 1,000 personal favorite songs I compiled recently.