Now there was a time not too long ago in which I was obsessed with Jack's Mannequin. However, it took Andrew McMahon so long to come out with a sequel to Everything In Transit, my faith in them started to slip. This lapse in time from album to album was more than understandable, considering Andrew was recovering from leukemia. When he started back touring and playing new stuff, I was only slightly impressed. Then, I head a live version of the song "Caves," and I had to hear more. Finally, I got the studio version, and I have since been in love with it.
I may love this song more than "Konstantine," which has long been my favorite song of Andrew's. Whereas "Konstantine" is similar to a symphony of sorts, with the main riff over 7 minutes of McMahon crooning over his lost lover, "Caves" is just as intensely emotional, but for another reason. It starts off with McMahon's simply beautiful, melodic, classical piano, and continues on the same sweet riff for 3 minutes. Over this divine melody, McMahon sings about his battle with cancer and his girlfriend (and now wife) supporting him through it all.
"Caves," upon continuous listening, is a euphemism for the marrow of McMahon's bones. In case any of you were unaware, McMahon was 23 when he was diagnosed with leukemia and battled for months before finally receiving a bone-marrow transplant from his sister, Katie.
The poetic nature of McMahon's lyrics is absolutely breathtaking.
"And she sings, my bird dressed in white. And she stings my arm in the night. I lay still, still I'm ready to fight. You have my lungs, but you can't take my sight."
Clearly the bird dressed in white stands for McMahon's nurse throughout his procedures. How he can make such a terrible topic sound so rawly beautiful is beyond me.
The height of emotion in the song comes in the middle after an instrumental solo when the tempo picks up, guitar riffs are added, and harmonies echoing McMahon's poetry are added. The guitar riff is especially catchy and picks up just as McMahon's lyrics reach an emotional high as he speaks about what it was like to have a companion, yet feel so alone in his tragic situation.
After the breakdown, McMahon returns to the original piano riff with a light percussion, fine-tuning the listener's experience and emotional journey with the song.
The album as a whole speaks of McMahon's battle with cancer, yet "Caves" so clearly defines an emotion with its beauty and power that it's unparalleled by any other song on the album.
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