"Gridlock Caravans" as written by and Benjamin Gibbard....
Starched white shirts, so neatly pressed by domestic muses
Feed delusions that everything is working out right
But your ribs can't withstand the increasing weight
As your heart gets heavier, and sooner or later
It falls to the tips of your toes
And every day tastes like inhaling
When you just lit the wrong end (that plastic burning scent)
Your only friends are on the exit ramps of gridlock caravans
You try to ask how they've been
But the metal and glass is too thick
Feed delusions that everything is working out right
But your ribs can't withstand the increasing weight
As your heart gets heavier, and sooner or later
It falls to the tips of your toes
And every day tastes like inhaling
When you just lit the wrong end (that plastic burning scent)
Your only friends are on the exit ramps of gridlock caravans
You try to ask how they've been
But the metal and glass is too thick
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I wonder why they left this off of The Photo Album?
This song is probably about love, since he talks about his heart being too heavy for his chest to hold as if he's just been overwhelmed with emotions and that's what makes him feel distant, like no one else knows what he's known or how he's felt.
I wish I knew what he was talking about lighting, something with plastic at one end. But the last few lines are about the distance he feels; the "friends" he has, who are supposed to understand him, are on the exit ramps to gridlock caravans; they're all getting off but there's no stopping the train he's on and the farther away they go the more muffled their voices become. Until finally you can't even talk to them anymore because the metal of the caravan and the thick glass of the windows drowns out the sound.
Whatever this song is about though, there's that hint of genius. One of Death Cab's best, for sure.
I don't really see why mentioning the word "heart" has to indicate love.
"your only friends are on the exit ramps of gridlock caravans. you try to ask how they've been. but the metal and glass is too thick. " This gives me the image of a mothers "friends" the women who all drive (caravans, minivans) their kids to like baseball practice and the fake niceness they give off. Like those people arent her real freinds they dont care, they dont want to hear.