Love all DCFC albums but Plans is what made them click for me way back in the day. I cherish The Photo Album and Transatlanticism too. Respectfully disagree with whoever said those albums, along with JEW’s, aren’t growers. They’re immediate, but also have tons of little earworms to uncover, which reveal themselves after multiple listens. I find something new to appreciate in them pretty often.
Everyone’s different. I could write you a dissertation about why Julien Baker’s Sprained Ankle, an album that’s only 5 years old, is my undisputed favorite album of all time. It just depends on how you listen to music and what you’re looking for.
Transatlanticism is perfect and plans is very close behind. Both were big for me in high school and still hold up.
I think Trans was number 3 on my list, so you could say I hold it high regard lol. Same with Plans. That band means the world to me.
Plans is my favourite of theirs, and made my initial long-list, before getting cruelly cut somewhere in the top 60 region or thereabouts.
Death Cab is an interesting one for me. I liked those albums when I was a teenager, but I didn’t connect with them the way I did to JEW or Butch Walker or Andrew McMahon or Dashboard. I found my way back to them a few years ago and they really clicked for me. Something about young adult me appreciated Ben Gibbard’s lyrics more than teenage me did.
I think Kintsugi might be the best post-Plans record, or at least has the best individual songs, but I also at least *like* all of their records.
Narrow Stairs though!!! Kintsugi and Thank You for Today are both fine, never really hit the spot for me, though I do love their recent Blue EP.
Oh shit yeah I somehow forgot Narrow Stairs, that’s by far the best to come out since Plans. Then Kintsugi imo. The Blue EP is probably the most promising material they’ve released in a decade
Narrow Stairs is cool but never clicks with me as a full album. Not a big fan of Kintsugi, feel like it starts strong and tapers off. Thank You For Today felt simultaneously nostalgic and fresh. I'm actually a Codes and Keys apologist lol I like it more than NS or Kintsugi.
Narrow stairs is cool but doesn’t really do it for me. Kintsugi has some good songs but as a whole isn’t great.
It's a difficult thing to balance because in an ideal world those high-profile masterworks (which are classics, in my relatively informed opinion) are also modern gateways to other hip hop music. Like... you should hear TPAB and go "where did this come from?!?"
Listening to Futures right now and yeah... this album is fucking GREAT I used to play the shit out of "Work" and "Pain" when I was a kid but the stuff in between is really hitting the spot rn
This is always one of the things that pushed me to explore. "Wait the artist I love loves this stuff and was influenced by it? I should definitely listen to it, too."