Planes Mistaken for Stars
Do You Still Love Me?
DEATHWISH
Do You Still Love Me? is one of the saddest album titles in recent memory. The question posed by Planes Mistaken for Stars, the heavy-rock band behind the record, seems rather innocuous when taken at face value. But for those familiar with the Denver band’s tragic history, the query is an outright tearjerker. Sure, that title could refer to the uncertainty—and, more importantly, insecurity—that PMFS felt when they broke up in 2008, 11 years after forming. It might also refer to similar emotions that may have overwhelmed them when they resumed playing shows two years later. Another possibility is that the band was concerned about their fans’ reactions to the full decade that elapsed between their third studio record, 2006’s Mercy, and their fourth, 2016’s Prey.
The most heartbreaking theory, though, is that “Do you still love me?” could be a question that the band’s dual guitarists/vocalists Matt Bellinger and Gared O’Donnell may have wondered before their untimely, harrowing deaths in 2017 and 2021, respectively. Muddying the waters even further—and falsely bolstering the hopes of fans that Planes Mistaken for Strangers might release additional studio material—were the promotional materials for Do You Still Love Me?, which made the future of the project seem open-ended in spite of Deathwish’s website declaring this the band’s final record. This might seem like nitpicking, but consider the following: Would you have the same emotional experience listening to Do You Still Love Me? if you believed PMFS had more studio material in its future as you would knowing that the band’s fifth studio effort would be its last? Didn’t think so.
Regardless, Do You Still Love Me? features PMFS delivering songs with a broader sense of appeal than anything they released previously. The band itself was varyingly and haphazardly classified as post-hardcore, hardcore, emo, metal, noise—really whatever the term du jour was for “heavy” among the music scene at any given time—since they formed in 1997. Do You Still Love Me? epitomizes the project’s original modus operandi of captivating indie-philes across the rock spectrum, with their big tent welcoming those who savor noise-rock at its loudest (“Matthew Is Dead,” “Punch the Gauge”); listeners who are suckers for catchy hooks (“Modern Logic,” “Rub Rabbit Run”); fans of big-hearted Jeremy Enigk’s Sunny Day Real Estate (“Put Your Heart on the Fire,” “Do You Still Love Me? No. 2“); and trad music heads who bow down to guitar heroics (“Fix Me”).
All of the above is a circuitous way of addressing Planes Mistaken for Stars’ burning question, insofar as we’re correct in assuming that it isn’t rhetorical. Our answer? Yes, guys. Of course we still love you. We always will.
