Death Cab For Cutie may have begun as a standard twin-guitars-and-rhythm-section indie rock band, but singer-songwriter-frontman Ben Gibbard and co-founder\/guitarist\/producer Chris Walla were eager experimenters with keyboards from very early on. Those electronic textures have steadily grown in prominence ever since Gibbard\u2019s 2003 collaboration with Jimmy Tamborello as The Postal Service, and it\u2019s been interesting to hear how Gibbard has not just incorporated, but integrated them in the band\u2019s more recent work. If the electronics had ever come to dominate, this might be a different band, but instead they\u2019ve been folded into the mix alongside the silvery, elegant guitar lines and propulsive rhythms that have always resided at the heart of Death Cab\u2019s songs. <\/p>\n
Another thing that the band\u2014these days consisting of Gibbard, Nicholas Harmer (bass), Jason McGerr (drums), Dave Depper (guitars\/keys) and Zac Rae (keys\/guitars)\u2014has always done well is to harness the contrast between quiet and loud, which they demonstrate again from the first notes of latest release Asphalt Meadows<\/i>. The urgent despair of kickoff cut \u201cI Don\u2019t How I Survive\u201d opens quietly before blowing up like a fireworks stand and then goes through multiple cycles of loud-quiet-loud-quiet, build it up, break it down. It\u2019s a strong effect on a dynamic, entertaining track that clocks in at a tight 3:40.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s first single, the even-more-tightly-wound 2:10 \u201cRoman Candles\u201d leans into this modern DCFC aesthetic; the prototypical line \u201ca hint of sweetness but the bitterness remains\u201d highlights a hooky structure carrying an abundance of electronic fuzz in the mix. The title track bats third and arrives in classic Death Cab mode: airy melancholy with some drive behind it. That sounds simple, but it\u2019s not the easiest combo to pull off once, let alone over and over. In the second minute \u201cAsphalt Meadows\u201d picks up a memorably crinkly guitar line as Gibbard delivers what feels like an elegy for a relationship with both a person and a city. <\/p>\n
Melancholy pairs nicely with nostalgia on \u201cRand McNally,\u201d where Gibbard references atlases, pay phones, and other relics of a simpler time as he reassures his partner that \u201cI won\u2019t let the light fade.\u201d The melancholy gains drive with \u201cHere To Forever,\u201d a song about spiritual yearning with another crinkly guitar line, skittering percussion and plenty of propulsion. <\/p>\n
If that all sounds a bit familiar, well\u2026 it is. \u201cFoxglove Through The Clearcut\u201d is the first flash of discovery on this album, a genuine experiment that opens with gentle sing-songy backing and Gibbard speak-singing a poem about a traveler searching for some kind of fulfillment. It feels like pure storytelling, and then the chorus hits and Gibbard sings a repeating phrase over a shimmering, descending guitar line and martial drums and it\u2019s honestly gorgeous. In the late going, it builds to a crescendo of guitars that lights up the sky.<\/p>\n
The logical move after that is to break it down to just acoustic and voice to start \u201cPepper,\u201d which namedrops Sgt. Pepper<\/i> while building to perhaps the most Death Cab chorus ever: \u201cKiss me just this one last time \/ Tell me that you once were mine.\u201d Things get heavier on the intense, pleasantly guitar-centric anthem \u201cI Miss Strangers\u201d when Gibbard reminisces about early days as \u201ctwo casualties of the punk wars \/ buried in leather\u201d\u2014at least until the song hits the two-minute mark, whereupon it sideslips into a fugue-state bridge with Gibbard chanting \u201cReach out, reach out\u201d for a full minute before it comes back big and driving. <\/p>\n
\u201cWheat Like Waves\u201d is a wistful, uncharacteristically specific tune narrating a Canadian cross-country drive with the stories we share in private moments. It\u2019s another experiment, albeit a somewhat simple one, and it works. \u201cFragments From The Decade\u201d taps back into dreamy nostalgia, this time relying more on electronic textures. <\/p>\n
Just when you might be feeling a little underwhelmed, closer \u201cI\u2019ll Never Give Up On You\u201d arrives to save the day. It\u2019s a simple, potent construction featuring a bold dance among big stuttering drums, atmospheric synths, jangly guitars, and layered vocals. Verses in which Gibbard lists all the things he\u2019s given up (being cool, drugs, confrontation, politicians, and so on) resolve into the affirming punchline\/chorus \u201cBut I\u2019ll never give up on you.\u201d It\u2019s an anthemic song of devotion, and it\u2019s terrific, even adding a bit of quiet\/loud contrast in the late going.<\/p>\n
Lyrically, tonally and structurally, this album will likely feel very familiar to any Death Cab fan. And there is comfort in familiarity, maybe especially when change has come to feel like an incessant knocking on our doors. It may not break fresh ground, but Asphalt Meadows<\/i> is a welcome new entry in Death Cab for Cutie\u2019s lengthy tradition of elegant melancholy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7010],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46603","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-death-cab-for-cutie","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46603"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}