Pitchfork

[EARLY Rough Draft of Death Cab Review, 10/7/03, 6:30 (NOTE: important, finish! final draft for Ryan before first date to Olive Garden and The Rundown (9:50).]

I. INTRO -- (first decision: clever metaphor or witty personal narrative??)

A. (used to be one of favorite bands / accordingly: personal stuff has more depth/heart)
start-shame on band, damn this record. makes me feel old and wise-- uh, but, yeah, am older (a little, SAA was only '99 (98?) in any case-- can say I had it right when it came out-- would give me more leeway (Ich bin expert)-- but, seriosuly not wiser-- shouldn't be made to feel wiser. Trans. decidedly makes me feel wise (see Roget's for new/better word for 'wise'), like i'm all of a sudden worldly and all-aware. Makes me feel like fucking Kerouac or something. --used to pause the songs when playing for friends and read from the lyric book, made me feel so callow and sheltered and myopic and like I had so much more to see and learn w/ "your wedding figurines: I'd melt so I could drink them in," and "gravitated toward a taste for foreign film and modern plays," (find better lyrics) there was nuance and the possibility of discovery and growth and suggestive prowess even in the face of experience. It was so forward-looking/thinking but had already seen so much.-- with this album: the mystique is gone, these songs are heads turned back over shoulders in commentary and nostalgia: but the scenes are already diluted with age and the pictures aren't as sharp-- nowhere left to go, just idling. Lyrical extension: Opening lines of cd: "so this is the new year / and I don't feel any different." (further (farther?)develop later)

B. possible INTRO 2? (direct metaphor route)(hell, first one got loose anyway..)
This is the sound of a band not embarrassed to lounge around Sunday afternoons in a bathrobe and tube socks drinking milk from a straw. Transatlanticism is ripe with indulgence and decidedly lacking in pretension or restraint. (eh, bail for now)-- but does get at 'role acceptance' and complacency.

Transition in....
??(mention concurrent release of Super Hybrid Audio cd version, can only be heard on special player. avoid obvious, "not worth buying just for this cd" rip)
??(new drummer-- Jason McGerr-- Not the same energy, but DCFC more Gibbard's melodies and Walla's knobs anyway)

II. The songs:
An exercise in scope: Transatlanticism dulls the edges of their usually acute divinations. A towering mass of sound: it leans (mostly lyrically) more toward Postal Service inclinations than it does previous groundwork. Case in point:
-- sunny jingle jangle of "Title and Registration", a Gibbard-patented melody accompanied by clear, understated guitar work replete with a stop/start drum kit and ringing tones. Will leave you singing about glove compartments.

Elsewhere: anthems and super-produced moments of glory.
"The New Year": pure arena rock. Direct and pandering. No distance between sound and receptor: play like they're running out of time, even sing about it, "I wish the world was flat like the old days/ and I could travel just by folding the map/ no more airplanes or speed trains or freeways/ there'd be no distance that could hold us back." Used to be Something About Airplanes and coasting down the 405-- the journey was the reward. Now it's the destination.
"We Looked Like Giants"-- fully realized anthem, true rocker- 'bout sexual discovery (old-hat subject matter --again: makes me feel experienced) a claustrophobic's nightmare.
"Expo '86": a mini anthem that tests the waters, pulls away and then dives in headfirst before finally drying off to Gibbard's lonely plea.
"Tiny Vessels": what could be the best moment of the album is tossed off due to lack of restraint, final third is mesmerizing. Broken by an Uluru sized wall of distortion and thrashing. Worst moment- 8 min. of "Transatlanticism", akin to witnessing the reunion of high school sweethearts away for a field trip weekend across a 10 acre wheat field, -- builds and builds to no avail. too romanticized. too far-sighted.

Then, the old Death Cab:
"Lightness", an updated "Coney Island".
"The Sound of Settling", old mixed with new, middle Photo Album pop-sensibilities tuned in to the waning needs of maturation. But no hidden agenda (hand claps and "bah baa/ this is the sound of settling") talks about wanting to go grey-- it shows.
finest moments: "Passenger Seat", bare, spacious understated beauty w/echoes of "Lowell, MA".
"Death of an Interior Decorator", vintage stuff-- overlapping guitar tones folding in on each other and beautifully realized bridge. Showcases his ability to scriptwrite.
--all together: a complete vision. A destination.

CONCLUSION: (III),
Ends the album where the Stability EP left off, w/ "A Lack of Color"-- a low-key ziplock on the freshest meal. Record IS a meal, with all courses well thought out. Ingredients may be obvious-- final taste and chef's vision remain a family secret. Just have to taste for yourself. Same cook-- bigger batch of sound.
My comfort-- nothing affected. Just sincere and honest. Can't disguise who you are-- or who you've become. And can't really complain-- not really. Just accept, Band already has.