Prove My Hypotheses

this is my favorite, favorite, favorite death cab song. and it's not called "proving my hypothesis," it's called "prove my hypotheses." whenever i hear this song, it always strikes a chord.

i love this song because the lyrics are bitter, but the music is bittersweet.

ben's being stubborn about a not so friendly split (typical human nature). he has this pride thing going on and says he won't give back the other person's stuff until they admit that they're wrong. the narrator switches from a subjective point of view to an objective point a view. possibly to illustrate the distance that has been created over time between people involved in the conflict.

i think the song starts off sounding bittersweet on purpose. i like to think that they do that intentionally to parallel how humans hide or cover up or sugarcoat what they're really feeling to try to avoid extreme conflict. but the song eventually breaks into distortion and feedback (the words "car crash" always come to mind when i hear that part), and to me it's kind of like ben really showing how he really feels inside; extreme anger and bitterness. (although that doesn't coincide with what actually happened; it was "an amicable parting" according to the book sleeve). to me, the distortion is the part of the song where ben becomes honest.

i agree with the person before with what the lyrics mean. it's obviously about a parting. "you said 'wait here,' prove all my hypotheses."-to me, that always brings this image of someone saying something like, "oh don't worry, wait here, i'll be right back," but ben suspects that they aren't going to return, so he bitterly says or thinks "prove my hypothesis."

the beginning and end music, kind of like a bookend thing, always makes me think that he's looking back and the whole thing seems so distant. i think the echo and the notes in the guitar makes me think that. it's just kind of like observing the ruins or remains of something that no longer exists, or is barely existing.

so that's my analysis. i think this song is a hidden treasure and it's a shame that so many people obsess over transatlanticism and aren't aware of some of the other great stuff that death cab has done in the past.

makes no sense and sux...lol great band tho

I LOVE this song. I don't know what it's about and I do NOT care! lol

With such short and, seemingly, unrelated lyrics, this is a hard to to figure out. Even if you can't, it's a great song, especialy for the insturment break towards the end. One meening that's a possibility, but probably not true, has to do with the lyrics "just admit that you're wrong and i'll give back what i borrowed or stole" and "prove all my hypotheses" and how they reminded me of a break-up I was having at the time. During the relationship, I had suspected that this one guy who was always hitting on her was a problem, and she told me not to worry about it, but in the end, she left me for him, proving all my hypotheses. The "just admit that you're wrong..." part just seems like general stubourn fighting with someone, like as in after a break-up. Allthought this probably isn't what DCFC intended for the meening of this song, it's on interperatation.

...it's quite obviously about a breakup.

i don't see how anyone can say it makes no sense.

urgh.

great song, great band.

in the "you can play these songs with chords" jacket, ben says they wrote the song about a band losing their drummer... only for their drummer to leave a month later.

go figure.

great song, and they totally rock out at the end.

clearly this song is about death cab's drummer leaving, considering they got a new one fairly recently.

If you actually read the cd sleeve, in the cd case songs you can play with these chords comes in, you'll see, it's about a drummer leaving the band.. It was written before the actual drummer left the band though.

myopinionisafact, i love your analysis of this.