Death Cab For Cutie

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes

Barsuk Records
March 2000
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Tracklisting

1. "Title Track" (Gibbard) – 3:29 lyrics

Left uninspired by the crust of railroad earth that touched the lead to the pages of your manuscript.
I took my thumb off the concrete and saved up all my strength to hammer pillars for a picket fence.
It wasn't quiet what it seemed... a lack of pleasantries (my able body isn't what it used to be).
I must admit I was charmed by your advances... your advantage left me helplessly into you.
Talking how the group had begun to splinter and I could taste your lipstick on the filter...
I tried my best to keep my distance from your dress but call-response overturns conviction every time.
My memory cannot recall... a wave of alcohol we shared a cigarette and shaved the hours off.
Lushing with the hallway congregation, my best judgment signed its resignation.
I rushed this.
We moved too fast, and tripped into the guestroom.

2. "The Employment Pages" (Gibbard) – 4:04 lyrics

We spread out and occupy the cracks in the urban streets.
Idle now... I rearrange the furniture as you sleep.
It's so appropriate... the way we amplify the sound,
And then the neighbors drop by and they ask (us) to turn it down again...
We spread out and everyone is frightfully more aware.
So impressed... the cocktail politics and obscure details.
And it was true that I was truly failing.
But you were gone and I was home calling around but nothing was found worthwhile.




3. "For What Reason" (Gibbard) – 2:52 lyrics

This won't be the last you'll hear from me... it's just the start.
I hope that he keeps you up for weeks like you did to me.
I will hold a candle up to you to singe your skin. brace yourself... I’m bent with bitterness.
When your apologies fail to ring true,
(you're) so slick with that sarcastic slew or phrases like 'I thought you knew', while keeping me in hot pursuit.
Tracing the plot finds skin touching skin (absence follows).
In the end, I win every time as ink remains.
Sour tastes prevail as you play back the tape machine.

4. "Lowell, MA" (Gibbard/Walla) – 3:28 lyrics

You've been forewarned of the shakedown.
Opinions stamped on the pulp of the tabloid newsstand gossip that's stacked at your door.
You swallowed the last of free MA.
Car starts, four windows lowered away... last views of cityscapes crumbling.
Skyscrapers sink into the ground.
All static, no noise... turn the radio down.
Those bandwidth signals can't reach this far.
Don't go holding out on me now
(I thought that you had come to expect more...)

5. "405" (Gibbard) – 3:37 lyrics

I took the 405 and drilled a stake down into your center,
And stated that it's never ever been better than this.
I hung my favorite shirt on the floorboard, wrinkled up from pulling pushing tasting.

You keep twisting the truth that keeps me thrown askew.

Misguided by the 405 'cause it lead me to an alcoholic summer.
I missed the exit to your parents' house hours ago.
Red wine and the cigarettes... hide your bad habits underneath the patio.

You keep twisting the truth that keeps me thrown askew [x2]




6. "Little Fury Bugs" (Gibbard) – 3:48 lyrics

You'll discover that casual friends kept notes in their pockets to remember your name.
And all these places we went to see sights just gave them excuses to get into the game.
There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable as the hope that you'll never return in a while.
But you're always on time, so...
Sleeping soundly... the back of the car felt more like a home than I would ever have thought.
And through the evening the engine kept on until we hit Chicago and decided to stop.
There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable as the hope that you'll never return in a while.
But you're always on time so...




7. "Company Calls" (Gibbard/Harmer/Walla) – 3:19 lyrics

I'll take the best of your bad moods and dress them up to make a better you,
'cause all the company calls amount to one paycheck.
I'd squeeze a heart through my fingertip but I type too slow to make expressions stick.
And it's like TV with a microchip.
Set your sights to sink the party line, 'cause it's so tired.
Set your sights! destroy this mock-shrine, 'cause it's so tired.
Let's cut our losses at both ends and aim your car away from all our friends,
Leaving the dishes stacked in the sink.
I'd keep a distance 'cause the complications cloud it all,
And mail a postcard sending greetings from the eastern bloc.
Synapse to synapse... possibilities will thin or fade.
Your wedding figurines... I’d melt so I could drink them in.




8. "Company Calls Epilogue" (Gibbard) – 5:16 lyrics

Synapse to synapse... the possibility's thin.
I'm dressed up for free drinks and family greetings on your wedding date.
The figures in plastic on the wedding cake that I took were so real.
And I kept a distance... the complications cloud the postcards and blips through fiberoptics,
As the girls with the pigtails were running from little boys wearing bowties their parent bought...
"I’ll catch you this time!"
Crashing through the parlor doors, what was your first reaction?
Screaming, drunk, disorderly... I’ll tell you mine.
You were the one but I can't spit it out when the date's been set.
The white routine to be ingested inaccurately.
Synapse to synapse...
The sneaky kids had attached beer cans to the bumper so they could drive up and down the main drag.
People would turn to see who's making the racket. it's not the first time.
When they lay down the fish will swim upstream and I’ll contest but they won't listen when the casualty rate's near 100%,
And there isn't a pension for second best or for hardly moving...
Crashing through the parlor doors, what was your first reaction?
Screaming, drunk, disorderly... I’ll tell you mine.
You were the one but I can't spit it out when the date's been set.
The white routine to be ingested inaccurately.




9. "No Joy in Mudville" (Gibbard/Harmer/Walla) – 6:03 lyrics

Last night I dreamt that I was you. I was dressed all in black with dark glasses and attitude.
Such a pose I could simply not hold through days in a northern town that I had once called a home.
Your studies for fringe New York streets... I was reading the pavement in every work you would speak.
To a "brownstone up three flights of stairs" and it's on...
Buying drinks for the poets upstate, this southern corrupting towed you down the interstate,
And they all said that you were the king of gloomy disruption that surfaced when you would speak.
This town simply cannot compete so I’m packing my Bullets and Silverstones
And heading east to a "brownstone up three flights of stairs" and it's on...
If I could have (had) my way this year would bridge '66 (again?)
Trust fund hipsters were casing the room chock full of amphetamines.
The overturned kick drum book set the pace with incomparable cool.
And if the tempo was lousy it was lost on all but you...




10. "Scientist Studies" (Gibbard) – 5:56 lyrics

What ghosts exist behind theses attic walls?
There's got to be a simpler explanation,
'cause I scrimped and I saved just to find that they've been splicing my inventions.
Cold skin and bones and this latitude... we ain't payin' until the heat comes through.
So you slept in a stocking cap and wool scarf.
Promises of payment were upon your shoulders constantly,
But don't forget to entertain 'cause this is your first defense.
A four-year offense to the devoted type.
I may have got an invitation but I wasn't invited.
But I thought that this meant something more than broken hearts and new addictions.
We'll leave our sins within the carpet twine.
Our bodies will dissolve the chemicals in due time.