Black Sun

This song seems to very clearly be about Ben Gibbard's divorce from wife Zooey Deschanel. Below are the lyrical give-aways:

"There is whiskey in the water/And there is death upon the vine" This line points to the withering and death of their relationship.

"And there is 'yours' and there is 'mine' " This line suggests that there is no longer an "us", but instead only the separation of the two.

"There is a desert veiled in pavement/And there's a city of seven hills/And all our debris flows to the ocean/To meet again I hope it will" The desert veiled in pavement refers to the hometown of Deschanel: Los Angeles (Santa Monica). The city of seven hills is a term associated with Seattle, Washington, the home of Ben Gibbard. The following two lines suggest that their lives have been torn apart and separated, but that he hopes they will come back together some day.

"How could something so fair/ Be so cruel/ When this black sun revolved/ Around you" A translation of this chorus could be "How could something so beautiful be so cruel when my life revolved around you". Ben Gibbard is often referred to as a dark soul. He even considers himself to be a dark person. This would make it very easy for him to consider himself a "dark sun". He could not simply state that he was a "sun" revolving around her, because that would be too bright and happy to describe himself.

"There is a role of a lifetime/ And there's a song yet to be sung" This lyric seems to refer to Deschanel's acting career taking off at the same time as Ben Gibbard gaining wider success with his music. The "song yet to be sung" lyric could also refer to Deschanel's musical career.

"And there's a dumpster in the driveway/ Of all the plans that came undone" This line seems to speak very literally about their separation as a couple, causing them to move apart from each other and throw away mementos and memories from their lives together.

"And there is grace within forgiveness/ But it's so hard for me to find"\ This line seems to speak to Gibbard attempting to find a way to forgive Deschanel for leaving him, but finding a major struggle in this effort. It is known that Deschanel is the one who filed for divorce, so it is easy to see that Ben is the one that feels betrayed.

These lyrics are not as simple as people seem to think.

Gibbard paints a picture with very broad strokes, in line with the stuff he's been writing since Codes and Keys and devoid of the typical specificities he'd put in his songs before that.

Metaphors about pollution, unharvested potential and ownership make it almost too easy to point at his failed marriage. There are also spiritual / religious undertones, such as the city of seven hills and the cyclic nature of things, contrasting with the harsh 'desert veiled in pavement' which seems to refer to LA.

All in all this wide-eyed imagery seems to be about trying to reconcile with the past, coping and forgiving (hard things to do, evidently). The connecting figure lies obviously in the chorus, where the addressed person is even bigger/scarier than the black sun (both an occult sign and a stand-in for a black hole) revolving around it.

A black sun also has the same shape as a camera lens which ties into the metaphor of Zooey's Tv career.

"There is a role of a lifetime And there's a song yet to be sung And there's a dumpster in the driveway Of all the plans that came undone"

I appreciate the juxtaposition of Zooey's and Ben's aspirations against the lousy concrete reality of what was actually happening and that they would not share their future achievements together. Very poignant.

This is about Ben Gibbard's Divorce from Zooey Deschenel.

"Something so fair" is a reference to Zooey, or possibly to the character she plays. The "Black Sun" that revolves around her is her TV career.

At least, that is the implication of the video that accompanied the song. In the video, the filming "revolves around" setting up a shot for a young actress. The stunt man gets hit by a stunt driver three times so that they can get the shot the director wants. At which point the actress takes her position in the car. Which is a not so subtle reference to the fact that everything revolved around Zooey's TV show, and that it ran over everything else.

The other lines are references to their respective lives. "A desert veiled in pavement" is L.A. which is where she is from, while the "City of Seven Hills" is Seattle where Ben is from. The runoff from both cities leads to the same current in the Pacific Ocean, so "all our debris flows to the ocean, to meet again." "The role of a lifetime" represents her career, and "songs yet to be sung" represents his.

"There is death on the vine" might be a reference to "Grapevine Fires". I actually hope it's not because the thought is almost too depressing to consider. But "Grapevine Fires" came out in 2008, which is the year the two were engaged. And it's clearly a song about love overcoming despair ("And she laughed and danced through the field of graves; There I knew it would be alright.")

Which, if true, might explain why "there is grace within forgiveness; But it's so hard for me to find."