THE SOUND OF SORE THUMBS

Not a Death Cab fanboy -- and not inclined to spooge about 9-minute rock songs of any genre -- I've been weirded-out by how much I dig "I Will Possess Your Heart." Yeah, it's hypnotic and instantly likeable and whatnot, as I'm sure plenty of my fellow hacks have pointed out. But it's also not a quantum shift in anything. So let's get beyond the usual vocab, the typical toolbox. Whoo: The song is built like part of the musical score to a video game, more specifically, something from the Golden Age, something with adventures and tension and lots of levels. I'm not enough of a game-geek to pin a specific reference on the song, but I will say this: My hunch is that you could easily take "I Will Possess Your Heart" and turn it into a chiptune, and it would be awesome, and it would enhance the experience of controlling a character who is jumping over firepits, stomping on poisoned flora or collecting dingbats.