Bands with a great deal of longevity always possess a distinct voice.
It’s the reason they last so long; you don’t confuse Bon Jovi with Def Leppard, The B-52s with The Cars. Something stands out with those artists, through their sonic aesthetic and lyrical perspective. The feelings they conjure stick with you, and often, they’re the ones that can make experiments seem natural. Groups that present a fully realized sound are the ones that stick with you through the one hit-wonders and the yearly critical darlings, simply because their distinct voice always allows for growth and evolution.
They don’t need to genre-hop, they simply funnel their essence through a different musical prism.
Death Cab For Cutie found their voice on 2003’s landmark Transatlanticism, one that balanced the frustration of youth with ornate arrangements and bouncy melodies. Since then, they’ve found a way to maintain a comfortable level of elasticity within their music without throwing out their delicate touch. If Plans was their bid at pure unabashed pop, and Narrow Stairs was a murky shadow land of grief, than Codes & Keys is a welcomed surprise, an album full of soft textures that come into focus like an old Polaroid.
Billed as “keyboard heavy” by singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard and guitarist/producer Chris Walla, Codes & Keys is deceptively less sterile than one might think. Less riff heavy than it’s predecessors, Codes & Keys is propped up by sturdy bass work, twitchy drumming, ethereal loops, and, of course, Gibbard’s stellar piano skills. The album’s title track benefits from Gibbard’s jumbling ivory crawl, set to Beatlesque strings and Jason McGerr’s booming drums. Elsewhere, Death Cab explores reverb-laden caverns with the cool Ooos of “Some Boys,” and the zippy guitar licks on “You Are A Tourist.”
There are no wildfire dirges here, just some lilting sounds to visit.
Though Codes & Keys is a more vibrant record than Narrow Stairs, it’s also not the sound of Death Cab pandering to their sizeable fan base with something slick. There’s a real soulfulness to this album, a sense of warmth that the group has only hinted at with past releases. What’s remarkable is that given Walla’s obvious studio-based experiments (The cymbal rush intro of “Home Is A Fire” comes to mind), he never pushes the band into a place where computers and sequencers takeover for human performances. That warmth, that human connection, shines through. Codes & Keys’ greatest strength is in exhibiting a strong sense of balance, whether that’s on the shimmering robotic vistas of “Unobstructed Views,” or the crunchy percussion and swelling atmospheres of “St. Peter’s Cathedral.”
Yet all this musical and production oriented restraint ultimately showcases how strong the songwriting is, which all falls on Ben Gibbard. “Stay Young, Go Dancing” is painted with swooping strings while Gibbard’s sugary tenor belts out “Cause when she sings I hear a symphony/And I'm swallowed in sound/As it echoes through me…” If Narrow Stairs was the sound of Gibbard’s world crumbling around him, then Codes & Keys simply reminds us this isn’t Kansas anymore. Instead, Gibbard approaches his lyrics with a sense of growth and perspective (“Such ambition never failing to amaze me/It's either quite a master plan/Or just chemicals that help us understand/That when our hearts stop ticking/This is the end…”). Now in his mid 30s, he's is no longer the desperate youth that bemoaned the New Year, but that’s okay.
In fact, it’s welcomed.
Whether or not you chock it up to marrying Zooey Deschanel, or his newfound sobriety, Gibbard sounds confident on Codes & Keys. His often-intimate observations are wrapped up with a punchy delivery, offering some immediate pep to second half highlights like “Monday Morning.” Over a buzzing bass line from Nick Harmer and fluid guitars from Walla, Gibbard recalls somebody he used to know, not out of anger, but with a solid sense of experience, “She may be young but she only likes old things/And modern music it ain't to her taste/She loves the natural light/Captured in black and white…”
Yet even if Gibbard’s raw emotionalism has been tempered, what's more impressive is how his personality and traveled outlook blends with the group’s overall sound.
That’s the thing: Death Cab For Cutie’s solid voice remains intact even if there are more keyboards than average, even if it’s not as “dark,” and even if Gibbard seems a bit more chipper. What’s noteworthy is that the group comes off sounding fresh, dodging the bullet of sounding tired when they possess such a recognizable identity. In a lot of ways, Codes & Keys is the perfect example of a band aging gracefully, not by becoming more abstract or pretentious, but by being themselves.
Key Cuts: Codes & Keys, You Are A Tourist, Monday Morning
Sounds Like: Field Manuel (Chris Walla), Figure 8 (Elliot Smith), In Rainbows (Radiohead)
They don’t need to genre-hop, they simply funnel their essence through a different musical prism.
Death Cab For Cutie found their voice on 2003’s landmark Transatlanticism, one that balanced the frustration of youth with ornate arrangements and bouncy melodies. Since then, they’ve found a way to maintain a comfortable level of elasticity within their music without throwing out their delicate touch. If Plans was their bid at pure unabashed pop, and Narrow Stairs was a murky shadow land of grief, than Codes & Keys is a welcomed surprise, an album full of soft textures that come into focus like an old Polaroid.
Billed as “keyboard heavy” by singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard and guitarist/producer Chris Walla, Codes & Keys is deceptively less sterile than one might think. Less riff heavy than it’s predecessors, Codes & Keys is propped up by sturdy bass work, twitchy drumming, ethereal loops, and, of course, Gibbard’s stellar piano skills. The album’s title track benefits from Gibbard’s jumbling ivory crawl, set to Beatlesque strings and Jason McGerr’s booming drums. Elsewhere, Death Cab explores reverb-laden caverns with the cool Ooos of “Some Boys,” and the zippy guitar licks on “You Are A Tourist.”
There are no wildfire dirges here, just some lilting sounds to visit.
Though Codes & Keys is a more vibrant record than Narrow Stairs, it’s also not the sound of Death Cab pandering to their sizeable fan base with something slick. There’s a real soulfulness to this album, a sense of warmth that the group has only hinted at with past releases. What’s remarkable is that given Walla’s obvious studio-based experiments (The cymbal rush intro of “Home Is A Fire” comes to mind), he never pushes the band into a place where computers and sequencers takeover for human performances. That warmth, that human connection, shines through. Codes & Keys’ greatest strength is in exhibiting a strong sense of balance, whether that’s on the shimmering robotic vistas of “Unobstructed Views,” or the crunchy percussion and swelling atmospheres of “St. Peter’s Cathedral.”
Yet all this musical and production oriented restraint ultimately showcases how strong the songwriting is, which all falls on Ben Gibbard. “Stay Young, Go Dancing” is painted with swooping strings while Gibbard’s sugary tenor belts out “Cause when she sings I hear a symphony/And I'm swallowed in sound/As it echoes through me…” If Narrow Stairs was the sound of Gibbard’s world crumbling around him, then Codes & Keys simply reminds us this isn’t Kansas anymore. Instead, Gibbard approaches his lyrics with a sense of growth and perspective (“Such ambition never failing to amaze me/It's either quite a master plan/Or just chemicals that help us understand/That when our hearts stop ticking/This is the end…”). Now in his mid 30s, he's is no longer the desperate youth that bemoaned the New Year, but that’s okay.
In fact, it’s welcomed.
Whether or not you chock it up to marrying Zooey Deschanel, or his newfound sobriety, Gibbard sounds confident on Codes & Keys. His often-intimate observations are wrapped up with a punchy delivery, offering some immediate pep to second half highlights like “Monday Morning.” Over a buzzing bass line from Nick Harmer and fluid guitars from Walla, Gibbard recalls somebody he used to know, not out of anger, but with a solid sense of experience, “She may be young but she only likes old things/And modern music it ain't to her taste/She loves the natural light/Captured in black and white…”
Yet even if Gibbard’s raw emotionalism has been tempered, what's more impressive is how his personality and traveled outlook blends with the group’s overall sound.
That’s the thing: Death Cab For Cutie’s solid voice remains intact even if there are more keyboards than average, even if it’s not as “dark,” and even if Gibbard seems a bit more chipper. What’s noteworthy is that the group comes off sounding fresh, dodging the bullet of sounding tired when they possess such a recognizable identity. In a lot of ways, Codes & Keys is the perfect example of a band aging gracefully, not by becoming more abstract or pretentious, but by being themselves.
Key Cuts: Codes & Keys, You Are A Tourist, Monday Morning
Sounds Like: Field Manuel (Chris Walla), Figure 8 (Elliot Smith), In Rainbows (Radiohead)
Click on the artwork to sample Codes & Keys for yourself!
Author’s Note: I know this album’s been out for a while, but given my last brush with reviewing a Death Cab album, I wanted to give this album a proper listen without rushing out a review. Do yourself the favor and give it a whirl. It’s their most immediate song cycle in a while.
2 comments:
I think my comments are starting to fall into a pattern (highlight, my two cents) haha so here goes:
"If Plans was their bid at pure unabashed pop, and Narrow Stairs was a murky shadow land of grief, than Codes & Keys is a welcomed surprise, an album full of soft textures that come into focus like an old Polaroid."
love that.
I remember reading a post, I think from Liz, a while back about records being listened to as a whole instead of separate singles. And I think this album speaks to that logic.
When I first heard "Tourist" then "Some Boys" then "Home is A Fire" I was disappointed. I even said to a friend that I may need to take them off my most anticipated list.
But then I heard the album as a whole and was blown away. There's something about it, from start to finish, that is remarkable.
I feel you used the word "fresh" a few times and that's what comes to mind when I listen. It never gets stuck in a rut, or to take from you: "Less riff heavy than it’s predecessors, Codes & Keys is propped up by sturdy bass work, twitchy drumming, ethereal loops, and, of course, Gibbard’s stellar piano skills"
I think this one is going to stay with me for a while. And just for trivia, Monday Morning was an early favorite of mine
"You Are A Tourist" was the kind of song I expected on Narrow Stairs and didn't get. In a lot of ways, I think I waited 5 years for that song, haha! I didn't really listen to the initial singles when they were dropped, but I remember "Home Is A Fire" disappointing me on first listen, probably because it's got a weird hook. "Monday Morning" was where it all fell into place though. It was the track I found myself smiling at as it bobbed by. It's a great album though, shockingly upbeat too!
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