ALBUM REVIEW: Thank You For Today | Death Cab For Cutie
- Courteney Williams
- Aug 29, 2018
- 2 min read
Indie-rock veterans, Death Cab For Cutie, released their ninth studio album Aug. 17, and has taken listeners in for a ride. DCFC says the record features familiar sounds from the past, as well as their take on modern guitar riffs and piano melodies. Following 2015 release, Kintsugi, Thank You For Today presents listeners with soft sounds and emotionally heavy lyrics.
Ben Gibbard and DCFC went through changes the band hadn’t experienced before. This record is the first without co-founding core member, Chris Walla. Walla departed from the band in 2014 following the completion of Kintsugi. Gibbard found relief in friends-turned-band-members, Dave Depper and Zac Rae. As well as returning members, Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr. Starting as touring members for Kintsugi, Depper and Rae stuck around for the creation of Thank You For Today. With the new, unfamiliar sounds within the record, can this be attributed to the addition of Depper and Rae?
Speaking of these unfamiliar sounds, the record opens with “I Dreamt We Spoke Again”. Presenting a dream-pop sound with a consistent synth keyboard, Gibbard speaks with someone or something from long ago. Synth is unfamiliar for fans looking for traditional Death Cab sounds pre-Kintsugi. Holding a deep, dark guitar and bass sound, “Your Hurricane”. This track contains a darkness that reappears from Kintsugi; compared to previous discography, however, is a sense that is not present.
Gibbard spoke highly of his home city of Seattle and the rapid changes that occurred over the past two decades. Sampled from a 1972 Yoko Ono record, “Mind Train”, “Gold Rush”, Gibbard acknowledges the places that are gone, and held memories for him growing through adulthood. In the lyrics and accompanying music video, Gibbard walks the streets of Seattle, seeing the change around him. He walks through crowds on their cellphones, signifying not only the physical changes, but also the climate of those who reside here in 2018. “It didn’t used to be this way,” Gibbard says continuously to signify the change in his hometown. The city he loves.
The lightest song on the record, “Autumn Love” is a song for self- liberation. With peppy, yet soft acoustics, Gibbard belts a ballad about finding your own direction. With a lyric such as, “And let the headlights lead me anywhere they wanna go”, Gibbard is relaying a message that is not only to liberate himself, or the band, but also to listeners.
Death Cab is notorious for sad lyrics, with an upbeat chord progression. That stigma did not hold as true in Thank You For Today, compared to previous records. In the ending track, “60 & Punk”, gives a similar vibe to “Brothers on a Hotel Bed” from 2005’s Plans arise. Gibbard paints the image of meeting a musical hero, but they weren’t as great as anticipated. With a heart-breaking chorus, “The curtain falls to applause / And the band plays you off, the band plays you off / He's a superhero growing bored / With no one to save anymore,” strikes an internal chord, expressing Gibbard’s disappointment in this figure.
Thank You For Today is a record that has yet to stick but has a lot to bring to the table for the never-ending evolution from Death Cab For Cutie.
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