In 2012, Ben Gibbard released Former Lives, his debut solo album, and it was bought by exactly nobody save for me and maybe Ben Gibbard's mom – and she probably only bought it out of politeness. Apparently the material was written at the same time as the Codes and Keys material, and I'm assuming he kept it to himself because he knew it wouldn't fit in on that album. Whether it was recorded at the time and just shelved until 2012 or if he held off on recording it, I don't know.
Former Lives basically sounds exactly like what you'd expect. It's a fairly standard, but solid pop-rock album, like Narrow Stairs except a bit folksier, more intimate, and probably a bit better. There are a few more surprises in these songs than there were on that album - “Bigger Than Love” has a surprisingly good duet with Aimee Mann, “Broken Yolk in Western Sky” is straight-up a classic-style country-western song, and “A Hard One to Know” has a random 5 second snippet of what sounds like a mellotron in it. Hell, “Something's Rattling (Cowpoke)” features mariachi elements.
At any rate, I'm actually rather fond of Former Lives. It's nothing special or ambitious, but it's very solid. There are really no bad tracks. Aside from the Beach Boys sendup of the short, a capella opening “Shepherd's Bush Lullaby,” which features a wry lampshading of Ben Gibbard's image - “a melancholy, whimsical tune” indeed – and maybe the closing “I'm Building a Fire” which is rather boring, everything is quite good. “Dream Song” and “Teardrop Windows” are catchy, Beatles-ish guitar pop, while “Lily” and “Lady Adelaide" are very pretty folk ballads. “Oh, Woe” and “Hard One to Know” are lyrically depressing, but musically upbeat power-pop.
I suppose if I had to pick favorites, I would go with the aforementioned anthemic “Bigger Than Love,” and I'm also a big fan of the gorgeous multi-layered harmonies in the mournful piano ballad “Duncan, Where Have You Gone?” Nothing phenomenal, but quite nice. That more or less describes Former Lives. There's plenty to like about it, and really nothing to dislike. If you're in the mood for a nice, unpretentious guitar pop album, you could do a lot worse than this.
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