Obviously we love the first single, ‘Punching The Flowers’. It’s laden with taut riffs, regret, pretty little seconds of guitar flair and a whole lot of bitterness – in short, all the things we love about Death Cab. ‘Pep Talk’ is the highlight of the record though, a painfully vulnerable sunlit morning of a song that begs for help while realising that the strongest help will come from within. The combination of grief and the realisations which come afterward are woven into every second of ‘I Built You A Tower’, which makes for a sometimes painful but always powerful listen. 

The duet of title tracks which bookend the album feel like a summary of Death Cab past and future colliding to create this present record. ‘I Built You A Tower (a)’ is dreamy and wistful, a chiming evocation of placing a crush on a pedestal, but then the rose-tinted glasses are snatched away for the sinister, post-punk ‘(b)’ take on the same lyrics. The haters might say that putting two versions of the same song on a record is just rockstar laziness, but putting a pair of Jekyll and Hyde love songs nearly back to back is something of a revelation. It sums up the bipolar nature of ‘I Built You A Tower’ so well – absolutely savage shred followed by the quietest coffee shop melancholia – and it’s a delight.

On the quiet end of the spectrum, we’ve got the hopeful solitude of ‘Stone Over Water’ or the eerily apologetic ‘Full Of Stars’, both of which would stand proud on a purely intimate and acoustic record. Then, for fans of razor-sharp darkness, we’re given ‘How Heavenly A State’ and the groaning electronica that highlights ‘Riptides’. Sometimes a song can even delve into both moods at once, like ‘Envy The Birds’ which wheels in and out of whips synth clouds and mountainous drum drops like its namesake, or the deceptively mellow ‘The Flavour of Metal’ which showcases harsh chords and childhood nostalgia. There really is a Death Cab For Cutie for everyone within ‘I Built You A Tower’, and a particular heartstring that each song will pluck. 

By the end of this, their eleventh album, you’ll feel like you know Death Cab better than even, and, more importantly, you will know yourself in greater depth. Two plus decades making emotionally resonant rock gives you a certain layer of expertise and there’s never even a second of ‘I Built You A Tower’ that makes you think that they’re resting on their laurels. The masterful sound of a band reaching into their own personal and musical past, albeit with one eye focused on where the future might take them, makes for one hell of a listen.

KATE ALLVEY

After parting ways with long-time guitarist and producer Chris Walla following 2015’s Grammy-nominated ‘Kintsugi’, Gibbard is now very much the songwriting force behind the indie rock stalwarts. While Walla’s departure does lose a key component of Death Cab’s output, it has liberated Gibbard’s creativity and presses a reset button on a band that has been in the public consciousness for 20 years.

From those long days and nights in the studio, Gibbard – along with bassist Nick Harmer, drummer Jason McGerr and guitarist/keyboardist Dave Depper – emerged with 30 rough tracks whittled down to ten polished, darkly anthemic and personal songs. ‘Thank You For Today’ is the first sign of a clean break from the Death Cab many have grown accustomed to and one associated with Gibbard and Walla’s songwriting dynamic.

The Washington native’s ninth studio album flicks between a reflective tone and pining nostalgia, and an exasperation at the times we live in. It opens with the eerily haunting ‘I Dreamt We Spoke Again’, which has echoes of Depeche Mode as Gibbard’s heavily distorted vocals float over distant chimes.

It is an opener that immediately drags you in. It creates an overriding sense of loss that persists throughout the album. Whether it is the loss of innocence, the loss of youth or even the loss at everchanging surroundings. Gibbard ruminates on the latter notion on numerous occasions, the despondent ‘Summer Years’ follows a sense of yearning for those carefree days of yore.

The speed of change in his hometown of Seattle is used as a focal metaphor throughout. Lead single ‘Gold Rush’ – which features a sample from Yoko Ono’s 1972 track ‘Mind Train’ – has Gibbard pleading “please don’t change/stay this way/it didn’t used to be this way”, despite him being resigned to how his city continues to change. It is possibly the most self-referential track as he, like many of his friends, went to chase the dream in Los Angeles before returning to Seattle.

The constantly moving geography of the world features heavily in ‘Thank You For Today’. The poignant ‘You Moved Away’ speaks of artist Derek Erdman – a close friend of Gibbard’s – who left the northwest coast to head back to Chicago due to the rising cost of Seattle. The lo-fi whisper of Gibbard’s voice feels almost like a love letter to a past time where the sardonic art scene would make his city effortlessly cool.

There are trademarks of Death Cab’s knack for instant classics with both ‘Northern Lights’ and the delightful ‘Near/Far’ providing odes to his hometown. Despite the changes, it is a place that Gibbard cannot help be enamoured by. The curtain call of ‘60 & Punk’ is an excellent soliloquy of what the future may hold and the unknown it may bring, but feels like it is delivered with a knowing smile.

During recording, producer Rich Costey would end each session by saying “thank you for today” to each band member. While it originally was an in-joke, the phrase resonated and whether it was good or bad Gibbard, Harmer, McGerr and Depper would nod and repeat “thank you for today” – a mantra to live a life by.

TOM WALSH

Death Cab For Cutie and Paws will be performing at London’s Scala on June 19.

Along with this Death Cab For Cutie have also been teasing something with a video which shares a snippet of new music with ‘August 2018’, hinting that new music could be coming soon.

Death Cab For Cutie seem totally down with it, having shared it on their social media. We’ll wait to see what West’s entourage make of it. For now, the six tracks can be heard below.

UPDATE: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tracks have been taken down. We would hazard a guess that somebody had some copyright issues. Still, it was great while it lasted.

Check out Death Cab For Yeezy on SoundCloud

Death Cab For Cutie have released another new song from ‘Kintsugi’. The track is called ‘No Room In Frame.’ This track follows the first advance track ‘Black Sun’. The album will be out on March 30th.