Death Cab For Cutie – Kintsugi
Words By: Bailey Zeigler
At this point in their career, it’s safe to say that Death Cab for Cutie has really honed in and established their own sound. Their albums are always lyrically and musically intriguing. It’s a very honest sound that really suits the group as a whole and it would feel wrong if they suddenly changed it. Luckily, Kintsugi maintains the sound and lyric quality listeners are used to. This album seems similar to how A Day to Remember’s Common Courtesy gives off a sense of confidence in knowing what they’re doing.
I will say that the first half of this album is a tad depressing, which is to be expected seeing as to the emotional struggles that come with a band member leaving and going through a divorce. Though the first song, “No Room in the Frame” sets the tone very nicely, it is immediately followed with “Black Sun” which has very heavy lyrics matched with a heavy sound.
Later it does pick up with “Everything’s a Ceiling” and it’s more hopeful sound that transcends into the rest of the tracks on the album along with having it’s own “poppy” sound. It all wraps up nicely with “Binary Sea” and it’s calm energy. It’s also the only track where piano is the dominant instrument, which is nice considering the entire album is almost oversaturated with fancy guitar riffs (which weren’t bad just redundant after awhile).
I feel like lyrically this album looks a lot at personal connections overall. However, two songs (“Little Wanderer” and “Binary Sea”) particularly focus or emphasize texting and online communication, which I feel deserves props because it is hard to do that well without coming off clichéd. They songs provide poetic imagery to some very non-poetic terms, such as the ones and zeros used in binary code.
At the end of the day, it’s a good album that grabbed my attention but didn’t necessarily blow me away. There were some moments where it wasn’t as exciting as I wanted it be and left me feeling a little disappointed. That doesn’t diminish the quality of the project, and I still will probably listen to it over and over again to catch all the little details the group sneaks into every song. That alone makes it worth listening to.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Recommended Tracks: “No Room in the Frame” & “Everything’s a Ceiling”
