I always love visiting LA but I couldn’t fathom actually living in the city proper. I have my gripes with OC, but it’s a fine place to live. Although, I’m ready for something new/different. Sadly the cons of being here are outweighing the pros (but I’ll stop here not to derail the thread lol)
interesting, the one two punch of monday morning and portable television are the nadir of that album for me. I love some boys though I've never really been able to get past the line "some boys are filling the hole" lol
Plans is like High Violet to me. By far each of the band’s most popular and beloved albums but ones that IMO see the bands lean into the elements of their sound that were not my favorite. I think the National had a better post-huge arena indie crossover album arc, as far as quality, as they sorta pulled back some of the HV bombast with Trouble and then experimented a bit with Sleep Well Beast and I Am Easy to Find. Sleep Well Beast, as you might tell, is my favorite record of theirs. And, interestingly, the National are now kinda where Death Cab were over the last 15 years with Frankenstein and Laugh Track being really uneven records with some highlights but also the band’s lowest points of their career. The National feel “lost in the wilderness” to me, to borrow how Mr. Gibbard cheekily acknowledged his band’s last decade plus in their KROQ interview a few weeks ago. They need their Asphalt/Tower that kinda clicks back into a better creative channel that they’re capable of and re-introduces some of the quality control. Anyway, back to my original point, when people express their love for Plans or High Violet, I have an odd reaction where I’m a huge fan of the band but really do not engage much at all with those pivotal records so I don’t have much to say 99% of the time that they’re discussed.
Yeah something I've realized about Plans is that for a long time I adored it and that's partly due to just sheer nostalgia, and I still like it but it's so soft. Like this Death Cab 4.0 or whatever version we're getting with Asphalt Meadows and I Built You a Tower is honestly a much more interesting sounding band, with like random bursts of loudness and messiness that just didn't exist on Plans. I guess Plans is just so polished, there's really not much oomph. Interesting take on High Violet by the way (if you can tell from my username I'm a big fan of that album thought I don't know if I'd consider it my favorite of theirs).
I honestly love Codes and Keys, I have a soft spot for it because it came out right as I graduated high school and the subsequent tour was the first time I saw them. I wish they had more songs like Unobstructed Views.
This album is really growing on me. Feels like it works best as more of a mood piece than individual songs. Some heartbreaking lyrics there too. “I tried to mend these fences. You claimed I’d built a wall. That I’d obstructed all your exits, as if my aim all along was to keep you somewhere you no longer wished to be.”
Mr. Gibbard did a really good job. I think this album is going to only become more revered as time goes on and it transitions from the New Record into something that can be rediscovered. IMO, there is a segment of DCFC fans (and aging music nerds in general) who sort of react to new music from a band from their adolescence as a challenge to their idealized cherished memories of the past and their “everything was better 25 years ago” persona and worldview. When the heat and newness die down, I think they’ll be able to listen to this and appreciate it for what it is rather than use it as an opportunity to assert how their fading memories of Walla Death Cab are superior.
i realized recently when revisiting their discog that plans probably truly is my favorite, which makes them an interesting foil to say the likes of modest mouse where i appreciate a lot of the stuff when they make the big jump but it isnt quite the same as the magic of the early period to me. with dcfc it kinda is the exact opposite lol this has sort of grown off me but i still think its pretty solid. its so short that it almost feels a little too thin
still looking for an actual source, but this is apparently Ben's updated Death Cab ranking. I always find these interesting from the artist's perspective.
Plans at 6 is surprising but I would probably get a little sick of it too if I had to play "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" at every show for the rest of my life. We Have the Facts at 2 makes me very happy.
Airplanes and Photo album are definitely low...but I feel vindicated seeing Thank You For Today above Asphalt Meadows, lol.
I love that they've released 11 albums now and even at the bottom of that list there's not an album where seeing the title alone doesn't make me want to go listen through it.