Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
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[EARLY Rough Draft of Death Cab Review, 10/7/03, 6:30 (NOTE: important, finish! final draft for
Ryan before first date to Olive Garden and The Rundown (9:50).]
I. INTRO -- (first decision: clever metaphor or witty personal narrative??)
A. (used to be one of favorite bands / accordingly: personal stuff has more depth/heart)
start-shame on band, damn this record. makes me feel old and wise-- uh, but, yeah, am older (a little,
SAA was only '99 (98?) in any case-- can say I had it right when it came out-- would give me more leeway
(Ich bin expert)-- but, seriosuly not wiser-- shouldn't be made to feel wiser. Trans. decidedly makes
me feel wise (see Roget's for new/better word for 'wise'), like i'm all of a sudden worldly and all-aware.
Makes me feel like fucking Kerouac or something. --used to pause the songs when playing for friends and
read from the lyric book, made me feel so callow and sheltered and myopic and like I had so much more to
see and learn w/ "your wedding figurines: I'd melt so I could drink them in," and "gravitated toward a
taste for foreign film and modern plays," (find better lyrics) there was nuance and the possibility of
discovery and growth and suggestive prowess even in the face of experience. It was so forward-looking/thinking
but had already seen so much.-- with this album: the mystique is gone, these songs are heads turned back
over shoulders in commentary and nostalgia: but the scenes are already diluted with age and the pictures
aren't as sharp-- nowhere left to go, just idling. Lyrical extension: Opening lines of cd: "so this is
the new year / and I don't feel any different." (further (farther?)develop later)
B. possible INTRO 2? (direct metaphor route)(hell, first one got loose anyway..)
This is the sound of a band not embarrassed to lounge around Sunday afternoons in a bathrobe and tube
socks drinking milk from a straw. Transatlanticism is ripe with indulgence and decidedly lacking in
pretension or restraint. (eh, bail for now)-- but does get at 'role acceptance' and complacency.
Transition in....
??(mention concurrent release of Super Hybrid Audio cd version, can only be heard on special player.
avoid obvious, "not worth buying just for this cd" rip)
??(new drummer-- Jason McGerr-- Not the same energy, but DCFC more Gibbard's melodies and Walla's knobs
anyway)
II. The songs:
An exercise in scope: Transatlanticism dulls the edges of their usually acute divinations. A towering
mass of sound: it leans (mostly lyrically) more toward Postal Service inclinations than it does previous
groundwork. Case in point:
-- sunny jingle jangle of "Title and Registration", a Gibbard-patented melody accompanied by clear,
understated guitar work replete with a stop/start drum kit and ringing tones. Will leave you singing
about glove compartments.
Elsewhere: anthems and super-produced moments of glory.
"The New Year": pure arena rock. Direct and pandering. No distance between sound and receptor: play like
they're running out of time, even sing about it, "I wish the world was flat like the old days/ and I
could travel just by folding the map/ no more airplanes or speed trains or freeways/ there'd be no distance
that could hold us back." Used to be Something About Airplanes and coasting down the 405-- the
journey was the reward. Now it's the destination.
"We Looked Like Giants"-- fully realized anthem, true rocker- 'bout sexual discovery (old-hat subject
matter --again: makes me feel experienced) a claustrophobic's nightmare.
"Expo '86": a mini anthem that tests the waters, pulls away and then dives in headfirst before finally
drying off to Gibbard's lonely plea.
"Tiny Vessels": what could be the best moment of the album is tossed off due to lack of restraint, final
third is mesmerizing. Broken by an Uluru sized wall of distortion and thrashing. Worst moment- 8 min.
of "Transatlanticism", akin to witnessing the reunion of high school sweethearts away for a field trip
weekend across a 10 acre wheat field, -- builds and builds to no avail. too romanticized. too far-sighted.
Then, the old Death Cab:
"Lightness", an updated "Coney Island".
"The Sound of Settling", old mixed with...
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