Day 1: Death Cab For Cutie “Kintsugi” Album Review

Death Cab For Cutie has been one of my favorite bands for as long as I can remember. The first song I heard by them was “Soul Meets Body” off their album “Plans”. I’ve been in love with Death Cab ever since that music video released. On March 31 they will be releasing their ninth studio album titled “Kintsugi”. NPR released a full stream of the album on March 22 and I have been listening to it over and over since the stream went live.

I’ll start by saying that the last album they put out, “Codes and Keys”, was my least favorite Death Cab album. It was very bland and hardly had any stand out tracks. Even the hits off that album were fairly boring to me. “Kintsugi” is such a huge step in the right direction. While it’s still not one of my favorite Death Cab albums, it’s infinitely better than their previous release.

Before I talk more about the pros of the album, I want to discuss my biggest issue with it. Death Cab released three of the 12 total songs several weeks before the album was to be released. This diminished a lot of people’s excitement for it because they didn’t have nearly as much to anticipate. Death Cab isn’t the only band to do this. It seems to be becoming a trend recently, and as a fan, it’s disappointing. I almost didn’t want to listen to the first listen stream of “Kintsugi”, but my excitement got the best of me. Now I’m not as excited for the actual album release.

The first track on the album, “No Room In Frame” has a very Death Cab sound, but it also shows development like they’ve been talking about. Frontman Ben Gibbard has been saying in interviews for months that this album was going to be unlike any of their others in terms of growth, and this first track exemplifies those statements. It is toe-tappingly catchy and I find it stuck in my head a lot.

“Kintsugi” continues with the second track being “Black Sun”, which is all over the radio right now. It’s the first big hit off the album and with good reason. The lyrics are perfect and touching, and the instruments sound so clean and polished. It’s a very good sounding song and it’s very memorable.

Many people have been arguing that the album dips in quality right around the middle and goes downhill from there. I agreed on my first listen, but as I listened more, I grew to appreciate the difference. “Hold No Guns” is probably their most simple song to date, and I love it. It’s very basic acoustic guitar with Gibbard singing, and the simplicity of it is almost haunting. It’s beautifully depressing and I didn’t like it at all at first. This album seems to be one that has to grow on people, it’s not the instant classic that both “Plans” and “Transatlanticism” were. It’s much more like “Narrow Stairs” in that aspect.

“Everything’s a Ceiling” is probably my favorite song on the album because it sounds so different. It has me tapping my toes and feeling happy, but it almost sounds like a different band. It’s an excellent view into their diverse songwriting abilities. “Good Help (Is Hard To Find)” immediately follows and sounds so much like Two Door Cinema Club that I thought it was until the vocals came in. Fortunately for me, I love Two Door Cinema Club, but I understand people not enjoying this song as much even though it’s one of my favorites.

The last three tracks on the album are definitely the three least memorable in my opinion, and that’s rough because albums should have strong finishers. They are not bad songs by any means, but they aren’t as powerful as the end of most Death Cab albums are. “Binary Sea” is excellent, but it doesn’t seem to carry the same weight that other Death Cab closers like “The Ice is Getting Thinner” or “A Lack of Color” were.

Overall, this album is fantastic. I can already tell it’s going to be one of my top 10 albums of the year, and it’s not even April yet. I suggest it highly to any Death Cab fans. I would suggest listening to either “Plans” or “Transatlanticism” before “Kintsugi” if you’ve never listened to Death Cab before though.

This is just my opinion though. To listen to the stream and make your own decision, follow the link below. “Kintsugi” comes out March 31, and pre-orders are still available!

First Listen: Death Cab For Cutie, ‘Kintsugi’

Day 2: Zayn Malik Leaves One Direction

Boy band superstar Zayn Malik announced that he would no longer be apart of One Direction. This has come as a huge shock to many fans and caused heartbreak in teen girls everywhere. Malik is a very famous and talented singer who will no doubt have a very successful solo career. I wish Malik the best of luck with his future endeavors. To read more, follow the link below.

Zayn Malik is leaving One Direction and group continues as four-piece

Day 3: Warped Tour Updates

This week, Warped Tour announced a pretty heavy group of bands. The bands are A+ Dropouts, Drama Club, False Puppets, August Burns Red, Memphis May Fire, We Came as Romans, and of course, Atilla. Check out the full current lineup below.

Vans Warped Tour