I won't hear that slander. Opener is different from the rest but it's great, especially as a prelude to Punching the Flowers.
Liked more songs off this than most of their post narrow stairs output but still ended up being like four or five lol, just not for me
I think it’s okay to stay honest when listening to artists you grew up with that are still releasing music. Their discography for over 20 years was formative for me so I really don’t mind giving them a more critical listen now. If any other band released this album, I probably wouldn’t give it as much a chance as I do for Death Cab. That opener does not do anything for me and I’m okay with that! A couple songs here grab me—not all of them—and that’s okay! They’re a late career band and I do not expect to resonate with all their new stuff just because it’s them.
like maybe ill listen to punching the flowers, envy the birds and the flavor of metal again but there is next to no reason for me to ever listen to this full thing again whoever told dude to change the way he sang after narrow stairs did irreparable harm
I am much closer to you in thinking this is another in the stream of weak death cab records that started with the second half of narrow stairs (this is bait btw), but for some reason the vocals don’t bother me here as much as they do on much of their 2010s/20s output. Like listen to his solo record version of Broken Spoke and this isn’t close to as different from the good ol days as that is. I at least want to do a skim thru the later records sometime soon - would love to see if there’s 11-12 songs as strong as You Are a Tourist and Beverly Drive to make a nice career band era playlist.
i dont really agree with the overarching sentiment that old bands have aged out of making interesting music by virtue of being old, and i think that it if anything encourages artists to try less hard as they get older. it also doesnt factor in that the listeners taste calcifies with age and they are more likely to have their brain respond to the music they grew up on vs new things not that death cab is the right artist to apply that to. i think it is different with like really big acts because they have to also keep that size afloat and play to more populace expectations
I’m with you in that thinking age is the culprit is reductive and probably inaccurate, but I think your average musician only has so many fresh ideas. Conor Oberst is someone I’d point to here - the Bright Eyes discog is pretty varied up to the hiatus, but then you get to the solo stuff and People’s Key that starts to feel a bit retready of what came before. If Cape Canaveral gets released in 2002 it’s an all time great, 8 or w/e albums in it’s a good song that for me personally doesn’t hit as hard. See also The National/Berninger & the Dessner bros’ output. Death Cab has put out like 4-5 records that sound like their great records but without the spark that made the great records so impactful.
i do think there are other culprits involved with those acts in particular tbf. for bright eyes for example, down in the weeds was a pretty inspired comeback album and it both gets a little slack cut towards it being a post hiatus album and does a bit more than id expect it to keep fresh. five dice is not an album i enjoy much but it is the opposite trying new things i dont enjoy lol like the vocal effects and modulation. that album he mostly just sounds tired and miserable which i feel like is, sadder, but different and yeah, i do think a big part of it is whether you want to continue to push and find new ideas for yourself. its why an act like say autechre can get away with having a massive discog because every record is an exploration into something different
People are more than welcome to listen to it once and decide it's not for them - again, I just don't tend to do that with artists I enjoy, especially when the thread is filled with people claiming it's a record that grows after a few listens. I felt similarly about the opener, but now I love it - especially the way it leads into "Punching the Flwoers"
It’s up to each man to decide what’s worth more to him in this moment, at this stage in their life, enjoying a great new record from DCFC or referencing Chris Walla and how much better it was in 2004. There is no wrong choice.
After a few listens this is definitely their best since Narrow Stairs for me and there's not a single song on here I don't at least really like. I think Ben's vocals on here are great and actually remind me quite a bit of the way he sang on Narrow Stairs. It feels good to really love a Death Cab album again.
i've been checked out on this band since codes and keys but this does feel like a nice little return to form. gonna have to spend more time with it. some real heartbreaking stuff on here.
thank you, I am glad to know I am not the only one who feels this way. I don't think it's an age thing, it's just a choice that got made at some point and it's just...different. I feel the same about Andy Hull after METN, he changed something about his enunciation and it just doesn't hit the same. Maybe it's from performing live for so long, maybe it's actual better vocal technique, I don't know, but there was a change somewhere. I still love both artists and look forward to everything they do, but I agree this is a thing that happens sometimes.
definitely think it's possible for older bands to still put out great material. even possible for artists to surpass their essential stuff. I am just saying that they've put out meaningful work to me already, and I know my tastes have changed over time, and I know this band's sound has changed in ways that don't align with those tastes as well; I don't feel so devoted to every single thing an artist puts out. I don't want to be considered a fair-weather fan because I say the opener on this is "very bad" - I am still listening (and relistening) through the album and giving it a chance. this is a pretty good album btw. not saying it isn't
Taking the bait here...wtf? You're slandering Grapevine Fires, Your New Twin Sized Bed, The Ice Is Getting Thinner, Pity and Fear??? Hey, to each their own lmfao
I think this album has a lot less excess and sprawl while keeping the clarity which has a subtly disorienting effect if you’re used to or expecting a post-Plans Death Cab record. Despite their polish, the songs are very tight and self-contained and have a greater focus on precision than bombast, so I think it’s easy to scan them on the first play-through and clock that combination as “missing something.” None of them are screaming for immediate attention or hitting you over the head with excess and affect. Instead, the more you listen to it, the more the songs begin to find their place as parts of the solid whole and you appreciate how replayable the album is because of that specificity and tightness within each track. After Tower B rattles your ear drums with some menacing Mr. Gibbard, you get to go back to the soft, sincere Full of Stars and then experience the satisfying energy jolt of the intro drums for Punching the Flowers which transitions into the perfect DCFC demonstration that is Pep Talk, etc etc. And it all makes sense if you listen to Ben talk about the band, music, and his analogous ways of looking at life. He considers himself an active songwriter and challenges himself to be hyper-personal and to make the best music he can at that moment in time. And his experience with revisiting the Postal Service and older DCFC records a few years ago put him in a place as an artist where he has the experience and hindsight to see what he might do better today or what he’s overlooked recently and the confidence to not try to recreate the past. He also makes a comment in their Amoeba What’s in my Bag episode about how they used to try to write songs as minimally as possible. I think the album has a minimal approach in many ways without recreating the minimalism of their early material and it is deeply thoughtful in its lyricism and composition. I don’t think those strengths are immediately felt on first listen as they are purposefully not trying to be immediate and impressive as they have been on past records. I think Asphalt was a distinct shift in approach and this is like another whole step towards the new version of what DCFC is. I like this band much more than the post-Plans to TFYT version and think they sound like they could keep pumping out quality music from this place for a while.
maybe I'm dumb but I don't really notice that big of a difference in how he sings? not like the difference from the dude from saves the day from stay what you are to in reverie
I think the timbre of his voice definitely started to change on NS/C&K and was different from the early stuff by Kintsugi. It's like he started singing better from a technical standpoint, almost sharper and with more vibrato, but it lost something that made the earlier, more slowcore and emo-adjacent stuff have a different vibe. Of course, their music got poppier over time as well, so it's likely a combination of things. Nothing wrong with how it is now imo, the songwriting is as good as ever and I still have those early records - I just prefer them and that's one of the reasons