as i already explained in this post, i initially got into the dismemberment plan because i loved the cover art for their influential 1999 album, emergency & i. and can you blame me? it’s a little panicking abstract orange guy in a desert (?) that reminds me of the vaporwave aesthetic and a graphic you’d put on a 2000s website. i could talk about the album cover alone forever, but we’re not talking about emergency & i here. we’re talking about “The Ice of Boston”, the lead single from what many consider the first in a trio of great albums from the dismemberment plan, the dismemberment plan is terrified.
while i love most of the songs in emergency & i, “The Ice of Boston” is an indie rock anthem that didn’t get even half the recognition it deserves. it’s more of a narrative than a verse-chorus song, with morrison sarcastically describing a new year’s party in Boston he attended because he was looking for his girlfriend, but instead he just got blackout drunk. and honestly, my favorite part of this song has to be this narrative: the casual imagery (“looking at the clouds, orange with celebration”- wow!) and stream-of-consciousness descriptions.
but that’s not to discredit the instruments, either. the little guitar lick at the end of each section carries it on from one place to the next, and the bass line provides a sort of marching beat for the narration. and then there’s the chorus: the guitars distort and totally ascend, and morrison belts out a few cathartic lines about his disillusionment. give it a listen if you haven’t already! 🙂
q-street 