Death Cab For Cutie -Transatlanticism

Tue 24th Jan, 2006 in Music Reviews

It’s hard to see at this point what Death Cab For Cutie is driving at; the nuance, the driving purpose and sense of discovery is all but gone. The ten tracks on this album are still saturnine and nostaligic lyrically but the pictures they create seem tired, almost a façade. It’s as morose as their previous efforts, yet it lacks their finesse, their vivid imagery, instead focusing on repeated themes of heads turned over shoulder goodbyes, doomed loves and lovers, not so much the rage of rejection as limping indifference, self-absorbed but never introspective. It sounds like they’re groping desperately in the dark for something meaningful, lamenting old times in a frantic rush to find purpsose.

Ironic then, that it’s opening line of first track The New Year is so telling (This is the new year/but I don’t feel any different). The song itself is pure arena-rock, mock-ethereal whispering ushering in wall-of-sound guitar. It’s direct, uncompromising and, as reviewer Mike Morris so aptly put it, ”[It] play[s] like they’re running out of time, [they] even sing about it, “I wish the world was flat like the old days/ and I could travel just by folding the map/ no more airplanes or speed trains or freeways/ there’d be no distance that could hold us back.” Used to be Something About Airplanes and coasting down the 405—the journey was the reward. Now it’s the destination.“

The rest of the album is full of mini-anthems, building up musical and lyrical crescendos but rarely delivering (the title track is a case in point), usually lamely dying off as if they don’t know what to do next. We Looked Like Giants is uncharacteristically heavy; a pleading tale of sexual discovery (hackneyed subject matter, especially from thirty year olds) twisting over unceaselessly jarring powerchords, before finally fading into standout track A Lack of Color, which, along with the brilliant Title And Registration is the standout track of the album. Lyrically, both are obliquely personal, vaguely self-deprecating and bemused, carried along by brilliantly minimalist guitar playing from Chris Walla.

The Sound of Settling, Expo ‘86 and Tiny Vessels more closely resemble the band’s older albums, optimistic while remaining cautious, tales of mistakes and regrets yet hinting that, just maybe, things are looking up.In conclusion, if in fact Fifth Album Syndrome does exist, Death Cab For Cutie are most certainly suffering from it. Certainly not without its faults, it nevertheless manages to avoid failure, even if it’s far more diluted than their previous offerings.