Death Cab for Cutie - Photo Album

List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $9.44
You Save: $7.54 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.41 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Photo Album

Music Review: Finally, there is clarity...
Rating: 5 Stars

Steadier Footing: the melancholy tone of this song sets the mood for the whole album. It is a great opening song, it is short, but the lyrics are simple and strong. It is melodically pleasing, as are all of the other songs on the album. The poignant lyrics that have marked Death Cab's style are seen right from the first line in this song.

A Movie Script ending: wonderfully crafted song--the rhythm of the guitar and the steady beat are really mesmerizing and stick into your head for hours, if not days at a time. It is mellow, soft, but possesses an irresistibly catchy quality.

We Laugh Indoors: this track has a heavier beat, and is more moody. The whispered lyrics are a wonderful contrast to the persistent beat of the drum in the background. About half way into the track, when Gibbard starts mutedly screaming, the emotions really seep forth from his pained lyrics. It is wonderful, but then the somber mood returns until the song ends.

Information travels faster: I love this track. The backing melody reminds me of Depeche Mode, but that could just be me and my obsession with 80s music. The piano adds a spectacular elements to an already great song.

Why you'd want to live here: This is a more upbeat song, a really cool pop/indie rock song. As Gibbard sings about his experience in Los Angeles and innocently asks why anyone would want to live there. My favorite line from this song is "the greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the street until the gutters overflow and Los Angeles thinks, "I might explode someday soon." The whole song really perfectly describes LA--even though it is close to my heart, I have to agree wholeheartedly with the description of the city. The line, "is this the city of angels or demons," sums up the song perfectly.

Blacking out the friction: The strength of the lyrics in this song is stunning. "I think that it's brainless to assume that making changes to your window's view will give a new perspective." Someone trying to change their life by just leaving, picking up and going somewhere new has no hope to change anything.

I was a kaleidoscope: my tied for first favorite track of the album. It is bouncy, upbeat--the inflection Ben Gibbard employs when he says Kaleidoscope is tingling. Once again, the tone of the music does not exactly fit the story of a relationship falling apart, but it completely works. It's an awesome track.

Styrofoam plates: the first time I heard the song, I mean really listened to the lyrics, I was awestruck. The song is sung from the perspective of an abandoned, embittered child as he describes his deadbeat dad, from childhood until the father's death. This is the most emotional track on the record, and it is one of the best. The painful truth of the lyrics is both disheartening and electrifying ... The lengthy instrumental in the middle of the song really allows the audience to ponder the significance of this man in turning his son into the angry and lonely kid. As Gibbard warbles the last few lines, you can hear him breaking apart, and that's what makes this song so powerful.

Coney Island: Another favorite track of mine. It is slow, and the music is labored, as it would be on a hot summer's night at Coney Island. It reminds me of something left behind and how the memory lingers on and on. "Everything was closed at Coney Island, and I could not help from smiling. Brooklyn will fill in the beach eventually, everyone will go except me..."

Debate expresses doubt: This is a gorgeous song about relationships, as many of their songs are. But the final stanza of the album really leaves us yearning for more: "finally there is clarity and there is purpose after all, but every night ends
the same as I'm collapsing once more by your side. Finally there is clarity: this tiny life is making sense, and every drop numbs the both of us, but I alone am staggering." The album fades with the tinkling of a piano--and then you realize that the album is over as soon as it has begun.

Great songwriting--lyrical prowess are the mark of this album. Simple put, it is great. I recommend this album and also suggest that anyone who is looking to get into DCFC should also listen to their other albums, starting with Something About Airplanes and going to Transatlanticism. Also, for a different, more electronic sound marked by the same lyrical styling, check out Give Up by the Postal Service, Ben Gibbard's side project.

Description of Photo Album

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock