Here is an excerpt from an album review of Death Cab for Cutie’s latest album, “Codes and Keys”
Although fans may certain pick over these lyrics in search of a greater, deeper message, one can’t help but feel that Gibbard is really phoning it in this time out, tossing out disconnected phrases and hoping that listeners find some meaningful way to piece them all together. Even worse is lead single “You Are a Tourist”, in which Gibbard tries out his backup job as the guy who pens generic turns of phrase for Hallmark cards (“When there’s a burning in your heart / An endless yearning in your heart / Build it bigger than the sun / Let it grow, let it grow / When there’s a burning in your heart / Don’t be alone”—what?), all over the most tired-sounding guitar line the group has yet penned (heck, they even look bored in the music video). At its worse, Codes & Keyssounds like the work of a decent Death Cab for Cutie cover band trying to write their own songs in the style of Death Cab for Cutie.
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So perhaps it was inevitable that Death Cab for Cutie would eventually hit a wall—after all, there are only so many different production tricks you can pull before everyone realizes you’re merely rehashing all of your earlier material—and with Codes & Keys, not only has the band hit that wall, but the bottom has dropped out almost completely.
The review was harsh but, for me, I’ve listened to DCFC’s new album 4 times in the past 2 days and it’s growing on me. Ben’s voice is familiar, the guitar sound is unchanged and the melody has a mix of what I’m used to when I press play on a death cab album. Each album is different but all carry a similar tone and, despite the reviewer’s feeling about the lyrics being completely all over the place, I feel there is something deeper.
What I feel is most at fault for this album’s lackluster reviews is that Ben and Chris are happier. They are happier, older, wiser, and no longer living in Seattle. They’ve grown since 2003’s Transatlanticism and 2005’s Plans and 2008’s Narrow Stairs. They’ve toured the world, made friends and lovers and lost themselves and, this album is their low point for a new transition or pivot in their songwriting. I won’t exclaim this as being their best album as it’s not but it’s a DCFC album and I love it but it could have been better. However, when you consider all that the band has gone through in the past decade, it makes sense that things had to change and evolve and this is an evolution into what is the future of DCFC.
This morning, I read an interview on Spinner.com. Here are a few key quotes from Ben:
In response to what he does when not performing: “I feel it’s important to have as much of a balance with real life and this extraordinary thing we get to do for a living. I remember seeing an interview with Michael Stipe years ago and he made some mention of his coming off a world tour and going home to Thanksgiving at his family’s house. People were discussing the mundane details of daily life and him just being, “Oh my God, these people are so boring.” And then realizing it’s not that these people are so boring, it’s that I’ve been doing this crazy thing and this is what’s important in life.
I’ve felt that in my life, going from being onstage every night and having people try to get at us and then going back to quiet home life. For me, especially in the last couple of years, I recognize that the greater importance in the long run is the smaller things in life. Family and relationships.”
adding: “We’re getting old, and don’t like going out as much!”
In Response to living in LA and leaving Seattle(the interviewer quotes ‘why you’d want to live here’ which was Ben’s song about how much Los Angeles sucks): “It’s funny because as I went down the list of places I thought I would end up later in life, when I was in my teen years or whatever, I never thought I would end up in Los Angeles. Therein lies one of the beauties in life because one just never knows. It’s always the thing that you expect the least that ends up being your reality. And I love it.”
The interviewer asks Ben what it’s like being married quoting Ben who said “i’d rather make records than be in relationships”: Ben says, “Anything that I say has to be taken into the context of where I was in my life — and I was in a very miserable place in my life at that point. All I really had was the music that I was making and the band that I was in. I was looking at my future and taking a lot of stock in my identity as a songwriter and as a member of this band, and realizing that at that point in my life this band is the longest relationship any of us have ever had. It’s true. Maybe jaded. Romantic relationships had come and gone, friendships have grown and withered, but this band was constant.
So naturally at that point in my life, with the band being all that I had to really grab onto, of course I would say something like that. Obviously, that’s a very bold statement and a little bit kind of dramatic. I can be a little dramatic and bold. [Laughs]”
How will fans deal with this grown up band and a move away from melancholy sounds?: “ Anything is happier than the last one. There may have been people that have been drawn to the band almost solely for the melancholy of the lyrics and the yearning in some of the music, and if that is the thing that attracts people to this band, then this record may not be for some people. But I do feel that one thing that I’ve always been as a songwriter is very honest about where I am in my life and the things that I chose to write about and how I chose to write about women. That doesn’t have to be everybody’s thing, but at least I would hope that as people listen to this record, they see it as an earnest, honest album.
The interview was fantastic and pretty much well it squashes most of the ammo reviewers have to anything that’s wrong with DCFC’s latest album. I remember sharing Ben’s poetry with a friend of mine who loves poetry. She appreciated his evolution not only as a song writer but as a person as you can see in every album how things drastically change and evolve and they become slightly happier with life.
If Ben and artists like him didn’t evolve and change and become happier, I’d stop listening to them. I get tired of the artists who cater to only one group of people for their entire career. I look at guys like Chris from Dashboard Confessional. He’s in his mid-30s with a wife and a kid yet he’s still writing about sad nights when he was a teenager. Move on dude! it’s over. You’re an adult now. Write like one. Fans who loved Ben for his sad songs should rejoice for his happy songs. I’m glad that Death Cab is growing as a band and writing adult lyrics and I’m excited for what happens next with this guys. The album could have been better but I truly see this as a transition from boys to men and it’s going to be a very bright future for whatever they do next.