Album Reviews

The gift of uniqueness can easily become the curse of familiarity, easy identification and in the worst case, self-parody.

The latter hasn’t happened to Benjamin Gibbard, Death Cab’s earnest creative center but on the group’s latest album, he’s safely sticking to the ruts of his signature phrasing, melodic constructions and even subject matter.

Familiarity can breed contempt but not this time, with the band countering with toughened guitar textures and edgier rhythmic drive.

Still, Gibbard’s wrenching earnest preoccupation with passing time and death continue diary-like and that’s probably how the band’s fans want it. Though the subject matter has remained relatively steady, Gibbard’s perspective has broadened and matured, while his lyrics have become more economical and a imbued with a jigsaw puzzle-like connectivity.

He sings about seeking and not finding the meaning in death, he pleas for recognition from an object of his desire, loss of innocence and optimism and one, You Can Do Better Than Me,” that accurately reads the minds of a great many long-married men. How a relative youngster like Gibbard pulled this one from the ether escapes me!

The song’s protagonist has begun to think the couple remains together out of fear of dying alone. He’s morphed through the years into many different people. He’s always out looking and falling in love but ultimately he realizes it’s a fools mission and that no one would appreciate him as much as his wife does, even though he doesn’t think he’s worthy, and besides, the song’s narcissistic kicker goes, (I won’t leave because) “You can do better than me, but I can’t do better than you.”

The last tune, “The Ice Is Getting Thinner,” about an inevitable break-up, is typical Gibbard: his poetry is close to the surface but sufficiently fleet to escape the conventional.

The LP cut by Roger Seibel at SAE is well-pressed, dead-quiet 180 gram vinyl and has the look and feel of either RTI or perhaps even Pallas. My understanding is that Roger no longer cuts AAA so this was sourced from digital, but that was obvious from the numerous studios used for the recording and mixing.

It’s a decent sounding rock recording, sufficiently edgy to communicate the band’s harder edged stance, but also sufficiently well-organized and carefully plotted to be pleasingly coherent.

Die cut packaging, a heavy, full color inner sleeve with lyrics printed large enough to actually read and a 45 single containing demo versions of two tunes (not available elsewhere) make the vinyl version worthwhile.