DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE- NEW ALBUM!

Ben Gibbard’s voice makes me feel nostalgia for things I haven’t even experienced, and from the moment I first heard it wafting through my headphones, there was no going back. “Death Cab for Cutie” has consistently been one of my favorite groups and I’ve had a little hole in my heart since their last album release in 2011. “Codes and Keys” seemed like more of a regression than a progression of Death Cab’s musical genius. It left me a little disappointed after their amazing earlier albums such as “We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes“, “Plans” and “Transatlanticism.” Since then, I have been waiting for their new album to be released and this March, it’s finally happening. Seth Cohen from the O.C. (aka the reason I know about this band) would be ecstatic.

The album name “Kintsugi,” as bassist Nick Harmer explained, is “a Japanese style of art where they take fractured, broken ceramics and put them back together with very obvious, real gold. It’s making the repair of an object a visual part of its history. That resonated with us as a philosophy, and it connected to a lot of what we were going through, both professionally and personally.”

The album was named in honor of Chris Walla, one of the band’s founding members, who decided to amicably part ways with the band last year to venture further into music as a solo artist. Instead of pretending that he never existed, or trying to mask his presence, the rest of the band members decided to make Chris a part of their new chapter. He was involved in all aspects of the upcoming album and, like kintsugi, will remain a part of Death Cab’s history. Gibbard promises that the album will have more of their original style, the things fans fell in love with in “Transatlanticism,” and I personally cannot wait to hear it!

The album artwork is itself a photographic kintsugi, created by artist Joe Rudko, from a photo taken in the band’s hometown Bellingham. To read more about the amazing story behind the artwork and its artist, check out this site.

The track listing is as follows:

1. “No Room in Frame”
2. “Black Sun”
3. “The Ghosts of Beverly Drive”
4. “Little Wanderer”
5. “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life”
6. “Hold No Guns”
7. “Everything’s a Ceiling”
8. “Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)”
9. “El Dorado”
10. “Ingénue”
11. “Binary Sea”

I’m sad that one of the vital members of DCFC is parting ways with the band , but his contributions and immense talent will never be forgotten.

By Fatema Sabir