Bad opinions • Page 401

I wouldn't describe it as weak, the songs are fine, they just don't really blow me away. The back half of the album is much stronger and it kind of feels like a slog to get through those first few songs. I definitely don't think they're as remarkable or as memorable as you suggest.

I disagree about JEW, I love every album from Clarity onwards.

 

People of the world

 

The New Year, Lightness, and Title And Registration are nowhere near feeling like slogs to get through. The New Year is right up there with Tiny Vessels and the title track for hard-hitting lyrics and the intricacies to Lightness and Title And Registration do enough to keep them interesting before getting into the upbeat dup of Expo and The Sound Of Settling

 

I think the back half's stronger but I'd still take like 8 songs from Trans over any song JEW has written, ha. Plus I find almost all of JEW's albums to be pretty inconsistent.

 

I'm glad you guys enjoy the opening section, but yeah, it just does almost nothing for me. Even when I considered the album one of my favourites back in the day, I was always a bit iffy on the first four songs. It picks up for me with "The Sound of Settling".

 

Lightness used to be one of the songs I was interested in the least, but it's become a favorite of mine these past few months

 

The New Year and Title and Registration have always been two of my favourite songs.

 

I'm trying to explain why i like the first four songs but it's all for different reasons, i cant even collectively do it.

The New Year is explosive, noisy, mixes boyish imagination with jaded realism and existentialism, with technical drums, and immediately hits you with beautiful walls of guitar that show Chris Walla's command over the color of his distortion, and his chemistry when he harmonizes with Ben's guitar riffs.

Lightness shows incredible control over dynamics and production as they open up the song like an echoing ballroom and then close it back up into a late night bedroom jam in the middle of the song, all on top of a warbling bassline and a noise that gets panned in a circle around the headphones. Even when they play a simple Waltz/ballad rhythm they emphasize the off-beat rather than the on beat and make it sound different than anything else I've heard. The guitar is SO subtle and it's like every sparse note he plays is the perfect complement to the vocal melody.

Title and Registration is Ben at his best. He meekly distracts you with an anecdote about the "glove compartment" being a misnomer and somehow segues that into a song about how you can randomly trigger resentment and regret with unwanted memories. The songwriting idea is so abstract and yet he presents it so smoothly, to the point where you realize this is intentional -- he wanted to express the bewildering, jarring change of emotion you feel when you're just trying to do something business related and suddenly are hit with depression over a past event. This song also has my favorite bassline on the album. and a perfect building-block song structure that progresses, blossoms from 2 tracks to 6 or 7 within 3 concise minutes... as well as a rhythm that gets more addictive and more demanding as the song goes on.

Expo '86, if those call responses between the main guitar and the other one going JANK JANK JANK on top dont make you smile, then maybe you're not as into the "indie-rock sound" as I am. Because to me that sounds straight out of the C86 tape, I love that cutesy twee/clean guitar tone. Also, the way he succinctly expresses our unwillingness to break bad habits -- "if i move my place in line I'll lose, and I have waited, the anticipation's got me glued. So I'm just waiting for something to go wrong, for that familiar resolve, another diet fed by crippling defeat" etc. Perfect lyrics and a memorable message, like people are so predictable with who they fall for that "they're all basically the same so I don't even ask names anymore". This is also some of the most "rock" sound you get out of Death Cab and, since they only do that once or twice an album, i tend to LOVE those moments coming from Ben's shy mouth and Chris's awkward nerdy guitar strumming.

 

hey guys
what about facts

 

i mean i love that record too. That album sounds like Philly indie-emo with all those lo-fi dreamy chords, and I get why it has its own following. To me Transatlanticism is them bridging that sound (which they are good at) with other things they are also good at and they sounded like a more complete band at that point.

 

Where's the airplanes love

 

Are we seeing a trend here? ALL THEIR ALBUMS R GR8

 

Not those last two, but I'll give it up for their career from Airplanes-Stairs as one hell of a strong and unique run

 

Well that's what I mean, Death Cab as a four-piece band. Without Chris things have certainly changed.

It's just really rare for me to have an artist that has 6 albums that all feel "complete" and all have some of the band's strongest material. Usually even my favorite bands, you can still say they peaked at some point, had one or two albums that are the best versions of themselves, etc. But I would recommend anything from SAA to Narrow Stairs for Death Cab. Every one of those albums has a couple of my favorite songs.

I can say the same for Radiohead and Sonic Youth, but aside from that? Not a whole lot of indie/alt style rock that had that much staying power.

 

The photo album is a low point in their discography

 

like i said no one likes DCFC as much as me haha so we can leave it at that. I will always think they deserve more credit.

 

Zac wtf man :(

Jk love ya. I've found myself falling out of love with The Photo Album over time, but I still really like it. A Movie Script Ending, We Laugh Indoors, Blacking Out The Friction, and Styrofoam Plates are all great songs.

 

I'll always defend Kintsugi. Came out at the exact perfect time for me

 

One of your hall of fame posts

 

If someone asked me about Ben Gibbard's lyrics specifically, I would point them to that album. His best stories and imagery are on this record. "information travels faster" onward and it's just rivers of "coming-of-age" wisdom and perfectly sarcastic commentary on love/lust.

Also Debate Exposes Doubt, Styrofoam Plates, Movie Script Ending, and I Was a Kaliedoscope are some of their best songs in terms of guitar work, while the drums really stand out on Blacking out the Friction and We Laugh Indoors. Great instrumentation throughout. I think the main issue with it is it could have been recorded better -- again a situation where I give them a lot of credit for doing it all themselves in their own studio.

 

I mean they're still One of my favorite bands, but I think the other albums all have far more memorable music. It's kind of in a weird position where it's in between the more emo influenced stuff and the more polished indie pop stuff, and I think it's clearly a transitionary album in that way

 

BUT THE GREYHOUNDS KEEP COMING
DUMPING LOCUSTS INTO THE STREETS
TILL THE GUTTERS OVERFLOW
AND LOS ANGELES THINKS
"I MIGHT EXPLODE..... somedayyyy... sooon....."

/listening as we debate about this

 

I definitely agree with you that it sits in this weird in-between phase of the band's career. It ditches the lo-fi sonic qualities of the first two albums, but it doesn't have the pop sheen or hooks like the following album does. Instead, it's a darker, more aggressive, album, which is a side they don't really revisit again until Narrow Stairs, but even that has a completely different bite to it than the Photo Album does.

 

Photo Album - 25 year old Ben Gibbard - becomes woke to the world - bitter angry album where he's mad at everything

Narrow Stairs - 35 year old Ben Gibbard - becomes tired of the world - bitter angry album where he's mad at himself

 

(i know the albums are not that far apart i just estimated)