As the song builds, the lyrics become gradually more simple and desperate, and the first two stanzas are merely a pretext to two of the best-executed lines in memory. As he works his way through the first two verses, it's clear that they are phenomenal pieces of writing, but he's just getting warmed up. The album's title-track is a perfect example of Gibbard's talent in the art of imagery. The songs are also lyrically dense enough to provide intrigue and new experiences on repeat listens, which is a rarity, especially in-genre. 'The New Year', 'Expo '86' and 'We Looked Like Giants' would sell as poetry. His way with language means that even when the music becomes standard fare, his words and sentiments are enough to keep you hanging onto every note and syllable. His way of intricately connecting unimportant features of everyday life to deeply ingrained emotions (and, at times, whole emotional mindsets) is comfortably on a par with - although notably different in aesthetic - to modern masters like Conor Oberst. But there's nothing lucky about it it just fits.Īnd intertwined somewhere there you have their second secret weapon, although by now it's so well appreciated that it could hardly be called covert - Gibbard's lyrical ability. On 'Title and Registration' the opening sparse and hollow guitar and beat seem, somehow, to conjure the specific image that Gibbard's lyrics convey in the second stanza. And all throughout, the music accompanies the subject matter so well that it half sounds like a fluke. On 'Tiny Vessels', Gibbard's vocals fit a melody which should be the pinnacle of the song musically, but you actually come away finding it harder to ignore the picked guitar line behind the verse.
The first of these is their aforementioned ability to pen seamlessly melodic hooks with gentle but inescapable riffs, rhythms and, most noticeably on 'Lightness', basslines. Their 2003 offering, a sincere and pristine collection of poignant and mellow pop songs, does not disappoint on any level as a matter of fact, it succeeded in thrusting them onto the main stage in a way even they had probably not considered.ĭeath Cab possess two prominent qualities which set them apart from the competition. With their obvious knack for writing catchy pop music, it's fair to say that by this point in their careers they had amassed a fanbase deep enough to hype the release of Transatlanticism and provide some form of expectation. And then you're in - you've taken the plunge into Gibbard's melodic sensibility, insecure poetry and intricate observations.Ģ001's The Photo Album really put Death Cab for Cutie into the spotlight. The lyric in itself seems appropriate for the opening of an album that carries so much power of immersion you'll wonder where the last 45 minutes went its delivery, fused with the conviction of the bass and drums behind it, subtly hint at something a little different to the understated indie-pop of Death Cab For Cutie's roots. He hardly sounds angry when he asserts, "So this is the new year," but he's sure of himself.
For a start, the bounds of his aggression had never stretched all that far, certainly peaking on Styrofoam Plates. Go listen.Īs soon as Ben Gibbard's decisive vocals bounce off the back of an equally convincing drum beat, you know you're in for an experience. Review Summary: As a collection of songs, this is probably the best indie-pop that will be released this decade.