'Black Sun,'' by Death Cab for Cutie.

• Position: Living

"There is whiskey in the water,'' sings Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard in the indie band's new song, "Black Sun, "and there is death upon the vine/There is fear in the eyes of your father/and there is 'yours' and there is 'mine'/There is a desert veiled and pavement/and there's a city of seven hills/and all our debris falls to the ocean/to meet again, I hope it will.''

"Seven hills'' reference aside -- it's Rome, folks, not Worcester -- Gibbard and company put together an indie rock groove that manages to sustain a sense of desolation throughout the song while creating arresting music. There's a texture to the song's despair, even with its nihilistic lyrics. Tempos shift faster and slower, bright musical notes punctuate bleak guitar soundscapes. Nothing in this issimple, and everything bears repeat listening.

Perhaps it's more of a "song to get you through the breakup'' than a "song to get you through the week,'' but sometimes those songs are necessary, too.

Toward the end, a metal-grinding eruption of Gibbard's rock guitar, Nick Harmer's...