Let it Dive : And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

And You will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead is one of a short list of bands that I think that everyone needs to listen to and I personally think can do no wrong. All music guide once described the band as “too earnest and fond of grand gestures to fit in with most of the indie rock world, but too arty and obscure to jell with most emo's heart-on-sleeve directness”. To be honest I don’t know if I could come up with a better description for the band if I tried. They are the only band I have ever heard that can be both anthemic and obscure at the same time as being emotional and honest. You don’t get the feeling that the band is trying to hide anything you just feel like any gaps in the understanding is because you don’t quite speak their language yet and while at time this is frustrating as the journey goes on you pick up a new dialect of your own. 2004 album Worlds Apart follow up to their breakthrough album Source, Tags, and Codes, was primarily a political album in nature and perhaps that’s why a track like let it dive is often forgotten. The song is, on the surface at least a tale of a romantic ending, is it metaphor for a political alliance, perhaps but if it is it is so well shrouded in its emotions that I’d be hard pressed to speculate. It is the tracks open appearance of emotion that draws me to it and the reason I think it’s one of the bands best.




(And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead)
Now that our ties are severed
As we wave goodbye
Let us not wonder whether
We are ready to take the dive

Let it dive, let it dive, let it fade out of sight
Let it drag us down, let it fade

Grieve, but not grieve together
Mourn with nothing to say
Gone are those times forever
Lost are those sweet warm other days

Let it dive, let it dive, let it fade out of sight
Let it drag us down, let it come between you and I
Let it dive, let it dive, let it fade

Were we born to despair
Deeds done but not forgiven?
There will always be something there
As long as one of us goes on living

Let it dive, let it dive
Let it fade out of sight
Let it drag us down, let it come between you and I
What's done is done, no reason to apologize
Let it dive, let it dive, let it fade