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Codes and Keys

Death Cab for Cutie

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iTunes Review

With Codes and Keys Death Cab for Cutie turn on their heart light. Singer Ben Gibbard is now happily married to actress Zooey Deschanel and his worldview has gotten notably brighter. The band has also shifted the sound from guitars to analog synths that when mixed by Alan Moulder, the man who gave My Bloody Valentine and Nine Inch Nails a stronger definition, turns the group into an arena-rock superpower. “Doors Unlocked and Open” is a swerving piece of club music. “Some Boys” is an explosion of joy as Gibbard instructs, “Some boys don’t know how to love”. But he does. “You Are a Tourist” takes an indie-rock band and raises the recording budget until Death Cab sound like a mainstream radio-pop band. For modern day AOR, check “Unobstructed Views” with its sweet wonder of reverb and keyboards. “Stay Young, Go Dancing” shuffles with a kind hope while “Underneath the Sycamore” retains shades of power-pop as it dances in a bucolic light. The Deluxe Version includes the video for “You Are a Tourist” and two demos that sound surprisingly close to the official tracks.

Customer Reviews

Solid

Hard to better Transatlanticsm or Plans but this is a solid effort. Good to have Death Cab back with some fresh music. A delight as always!

A grower...

Ok so Ben is happy and that's reflected in the lack of melancholy. Not sure how many of the songs here would translate to just an acoustic guitar, but it carries on the kind of sound we heard on Narrow Stairs. Not a classic, but another solid collection. If you like this, go back to Transatlanticism and work your way forward, you won't be disappointed.

The Album's Okay... Until you Remember It's supposed to be Death Cab

Not a classic, not Transatlanticism. But if you imagine it's another band playing the songs, which isn't very difficult considering how far detached it is from their earlier five star worthy stuff, then it is a satisfactory album... but even then that's it. The lyrics for Ben Gibbard are to say the least hackneyed, uninspiring and predictable, i think there may be a reason why they haven't tried to write happy music before... the results aren't great. Perhaps the greatest effect of Death Cab putting down their guitars is that this album says goodbye to their edge and gritty darkness, Narrow Stairs saw the beginning of this loss. The use of vintage synth instruments makes for good background music but not for a band that at their best were my favourite band... It just sounds a bit weak, a bit thin and frankly uninteresting, You Are A Tourist and Unobstructed Views pick it up a bit but it sounds like a completely different band, one which i won't be buying into and one which i'm glad i didn't get tickets to go and see. The very fact that "Home Is A Fire" is a single off this album goes to show that this is background music and is in fact quite dull. In two words, massive disappointment. It just doesn't give you the tingle that Death Cab albums should, as i'm sure many people will tell you, if you haven't got it already, save your money buy Transatlanticism, buy Plans, buy all their albums and other similar bands' albums before you buy this. I want to like it as a huge Death Cab fan but it's just not the album any of us wanted to hear...

Biography

Formed: 1997 in Bellingham, WA

Genre: Alternative

Years Active: '90s, '00s, '10s

Death Cab for Cutie's rise from small-time solo project to Grammy-nominated rock band is one of indie rock's greatest success stories. Launched in the bayside college town of Bellingham, Washington, the group was originally a side project for singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard, an engineering student at Western Washington University who split his time between school and music. Taking a break from his local power pop band, Pinwheel, Gibbard began recording an album's worth of solo material during the summer...
Full bio

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