Review Summary: Death Cab's definitive album, Transatlanticism is chock full of musical innovations, quirks, and hooks. There's something everyone can appreciate in this album, and remains one of the finest albums released by any artist.
Every once in a while, you hear an album that you know that you're going to be listening to until your dying day, an album that surpasses all boundaries of music you've previously conceived to change your outlook on what makes music "good" forever. Transatlanticism was one of those albums for me. As soon as the 7-minute-long title track hit its spectacular climax, I knew I had found something truly magnificent.
So what makes Transatlanticism so good? I think it's a combination of things. First of all, Ben Gibbard's lyrics are and always have been amazing. He has a way of communicating complex ideas into his songs while remaining very down-to-earth. I know that statement sounds very transcendental, so let me give an example. In the song "Expo '86" Ben relates being in love and losing it to going up and down a slide. Yeah, the kind of slide you see in a playground.
"Sometimes I think this cycle never ends.
We slide from top to bottom then we turn and climb again.
But it seems by the time that I have figured what it's worth
The squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse.
But if I move my place in line, I lose.
And I have waited the anticipation's got me glued."
Simple things like that have a way of bringing a smile to your face but at the same time communicate a massive amount of emotion that nearly everyone can relate to, even if they've never had the exact same experience. My favorite lyrical moment has got to be "Title And Registration". Gibbard tells a simple story in retrospect that, when coupled with the simmering, subtly building music, is extremely moving but profoundly simple.
Another reason why I think Transatlanticism is so great is because the music contained therein is impossible to duplicate exactly. Take a band like Fall Out Boy: your band wants to do a cover, making the song sound exactly the same as it does in FOB's studio. Find a guy that sounds just like Patrick Stump, get a drummer, gay bassist, and two guitars and you more or less have a carbon copy of the original. Such a thing is next to impossible with something like Transatlanticism. It's part of what makes it so unique. For example, the little background electronic sounds in Transatlanticism (the song) and the swelling flute-noises in Title and Registration. And the stomping and clapping in The Sound of Settling. I could go on and on. They're all highly unconventional songwriting quirks that make it instantly recognizable and irreplacable.
Finally, the joy of Transatlanticism's music lies in simplicity. The guitar riff in "Expo '86" isn't particularly hard to play. It's just very digestible to the musical part of your brain while remaining unconventional and fresh and new. "Tiny Vessel"s crystal-clear, mournful guitars can sound complex on first listen, but when you break it down, it's just two guitars arpeggiating at once. The gentle piano octaves at the end of "Lack of Color" add so much while being very simple. Again, I could talk about all the simple innovations all day. But I'll just leave the better part of them for you to find.
In conclusion, Transatlanticism is a modern masterpiece. I've listened to it countless times in the last year or so I've owned it, and it never, ever gets old. If all you've heard from Death Cab is the "Plans" album, this should be the next thing you purchase. You'd be doing yourself an injustice not to have this work of art in your collection.
