LP Review: Transatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie

Death Cab For Cutie
Transatlanticism
Barsuk; 2003

My Rating: A (88/100)

Best Tracks: "The New Year", "Title & Registration", "The Sound of Settling", "Transatlanticism", "Passenger Seat", "We Looked Like Giants"

Emo grande.

TRACK NOTES

"The New Year" (4.5/5)

• From the beginning, announces a new Death Cab.
• "So everybody put your best suit or dress on/We’ll make-believe we are happy for just this once/Lighting firecrackers off on the front-lawn/As 30 dialogues bleed into one"
• The biggest rock song they’ve done. Maybe a little Trail of Dead influence here?
• Near perfect, but I’ve always felt like it ends a bit abruptly, like an unfinished thought.

"Lightness" (4.5/5)

• Floats.
• Beautiful, sleepy melody.
• "Oh instincts are misleading/You shouldn’t think what you’re feeling/They don’t tell you what you know you should want…”

"Title & Registration" (5/5)

• Brilliant in every way.
• Great arrangement. Love the xylophone.

"Expo ’86" (4.5/5)

• Gibbard does amazing melodies and riffs, but on this album they were overflowing, plain and simple. Case in point. This sounds effortless.

"The Sound of Settling" (5/5)

• If there was ever a radio-friendly Death Cab tune, this is it.

"Tiny Vessels" (4/5)

• Nice chiming guitar riff.

"Transatlanticism" (5/5)

• Epic.

"Passenger Seat" (4.5/5)

• The talked about Codes & Keys being Eno-esque, but this is maybe the most Eno-esque thing they’ve recorded.
• A bit of a Lennon thing going on too.
• Flows really well on the heels of the title track.

"Death of an Interior Decorator" (4/5)

• Sounds like the early 90’s.

"We Looked Like Giants" (5/5)

• Huge and feverish.

"A Lack of Color" (4.5/5)

• Dark and, well, quite frankly, a wee bit depressing.
• “This is fact not fiction for the first time in years…”

ALBUM NOTES

• This is the best emo record since Diary.
• If you are new to Death Cab, I recommend starting here.
• Conceptually perfect.
• Very cinematic. Were there any videos made for this album?
• They emphasized the Eno influence on their latest (Codes & Keys), but I heard plenty of Eno influence here, especially on "Passenger Seat" and "Transatlanticism."
• And what’s that noise that opens and closes the album?
• Here’s an older review of this album.
• Previous Death Cab albums: Something About Airplanes, We Have the Facts, The Photo Album, You Can Play These Songs.

ATTRIBUTES
Cohesion (5/5)
Concept (5/5)
Consistency (4.5/5)
Consequence (5/5)
Songs (4.5/5)