SOUND BITES

  While helping to usher in indie rock's breakout period by creating their most accessible and dynamic work just as the masses' ears were perking up to the Modest Mice and Bloc Parties of the world, Death Cab for Cutie found themselves a go-to for lovestruck listeners who identified with Ben Gibbard's tales of longing and relationships on 2003's breakthrough record Transatlanticism . By the time they made their major debut (2005's Plans ), Gibbard had finely honed the skill of encapsulating love's extremes, from fear and doubt to devotion and commitment. To further illustrate just how well their songs speak to these extremes, just listen to Title and Registration and I Will Follow You Into the Dark back to back with the knowledge that these two vastly different takes on romance were released just two years apart. Such has been the way of Death Cab's records, each more or less mirroring Gibbard's personal ups and downs as he's found and lost love re...

Following founding guitarist Chris Walla's departure, many speculated what Death Cab for Cutie's music might sound like going forward. Would we get a deluge of synth and keyboards, like we did on 2011's Codes and Keys ? Maybe they'd retreat into the sparser sounds of their earlier work. Perhaps it would be "none of the above", and Death Cab would go off in a direction they'd never gone before. As it turns out, our answer is "a little bit of all of that"; pianos and keyboards do play a bigger role, but there are tasteful guitars running throughout to prevent a repeat of the blandness of Codes and Keys . There are slight glimpses into past glories, with a chord here and a particularly effective lyric there. Then, there are sidesteps like Summer Years , the stuttering backbeat and shimmering guitar for which lends the song a Radiohead vibe. Unsurprisingly then, Thank You for Today is just a bit of a mess, though admittedly a more engaging li...

Spring 2015 saw some big albums released that were kind of disappointing (isn't that right, Mumford & Sons?), but it also saw some really good work by bands that typically fly under the radar. Some of this batch of nominees have been around for a long time, some are relative newcomers, and a couple of them made welcome returns from very long absences. The next group of Song of the Year nominees are:

It's not entirely fair that good art often comes from bad situations. Whether due to a flaw in our human nature that makes us revel in the pain of others, or a reflection of our society wherein suffering is easier to identify with than happiness, the sad stories always seem to be the ones we take to heart. For Ben Gibbard, who built a career preaching to the heartbroken and confused, it's not all that surprising that some of his most inspired and affecting work in years has followed divorce. When last we heard from Death Cab For Cutie, it was four years ago and much was made of Codes and Keys . More to the point, much was made of the uptick in positive vibes and lesser focus on the guitar-driven indie rock sound that had endeared them to so many. Of course, we were happy that Gibbard had found love and married, and it wasn't necessarily a bad look for the band, but the lack of melancholy coupled with the lack of guitars marked Codes and Keys as a drastic shift in sound a...

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE You Are a Tourist From: Codes and Keys Released: May 31 Much was made of the fact that Codes and Keys was the first Death Cab for Cutie album to be released after mainman Ben Gibbard's marriage to indie darling and eternal hottie Zooey Deschanel; it was hypothesized that married life would bring out Gibbard's sunnier side.  Indeed, Codes and Keys finds Gibbard in a much more pleasant, stabilized mood compared to previous releases.  Sadness replaced with content, despair with hope.  And the music follows suit; not that DCFC were ever really considered a guitar rock band proper, but on Codes and Keys they're becoming extinct, the melodies more often painted with keyboards while guitars laze about unnoticed in the background. On You Are a Tourist , however, they're front and center; there are no power chords in sight, but the strings do spit sparks of positive energy that propel the track from just your standard indie rock tune to your indi...