Ben Gibbard is like the Baxter to my Ron Burgandy. He truly knows how to cut to the core of me. When I’m feeling down, I go home, put on some Death Cab for Cutie, snuggle up in my jammies, get on my headgear and let it lull me to sleep. However, just like Baxter gets punted off the bridge, whenever I try to recommend any Death Cab for Cutie albums to anyone, my opinion gets thrown out with a retort of “No way! I’m not some kind of emo bitch!” And, I will admit, this is how I originally felt about DCFC, but then a friend offered to burn me a mix CD of some of their stuff. Never being one to turn down free music, I accepted and gave the CD a listen. I immediately found myself in a glass case of emotion. The slow, heartbreaking guitar riffs and lyrics filled with a large vocabulary helped me to deal with any sadness I had and study for SATs at the same time.
Gibbard has a unique approach to songwriting. He usually uses a couple different styles. One of these, I like to call the UCB (as in Upright Citizens Brigade) style. In this style, Gibbard starts singing about a couple of topics that seem a bit random at first, but by the end of the song it all ties together, much like an episode of UCB, hence the name. One example of this style is found in
Steadier Footing where Gibbard starts off by singing about a party that has just occurred, and now all that are left are him, and his presumably desired girlfriend. In the end, Gibbard connects his smoking habits to his relationship troubles by singing:
“I let you bum a smoke/You quit this winter past/I’ve tried twice before/But like this it just would not last”
Another style Gibbard uses is the obsessed boyfriend, who apparently has just been dumped. This is the style that has been most associated with Death Cab by the general public, though it’s not all that prevalent on this album. However, there are a couple songs that feature this style, the most notable being
We Laugh Indoors and
Why You’d Want to Live Here. In
We Laugh Indoors Gibbard repeats the line
“I loved you Guenivere” over so many times that you start to feel a bit scared for the girl, and hope that Gibbard doesn’t get the revenge he seems to crave. With
Why You’d Want to Live Here Gibbard takes a bit of a gentler approach to getting his girl back. The song isn’t so much about the girl, but just about how unappealing Los Angeles is, and by this, he hopes she’ll move back with him.
On the contrary, Gibbard can also play on the other end of the spectrum, by being the condescending object of another’s lust. This is most evident in the opening of
Information Travels Faster where Gibbard declares to his obsessed pen-pal:
“I intentionally wrote it out to be an illegible mess/You wanted me to write you letters/But I'd rather lose your address/And forget that we'd ever met/And what did or did not occur/Sitting in the station/It’s all a blur”
However, the pinnacle of Gibbard’s song-writing career doesn’t fall under any of these categories.
Styrofoam Plates is a about a father’s death, and the son remembers him, in a not-so-fond light. Gibbard begins the song by proclaiming:
“There’s a salt-water film on the jar of your ashes/I threw them to see/But a gust blew them backwards/And the sting in my eyes/That you then inflicted/Was par for the course/Just as when you were living/It’s no stretch to say/You were not quite a father/But a donor of seeds/To a poor single mother/Who would raise us alone/We never saw the money/It went down your throat/Through the hole in your belly”
Gibbard goes on to tell of the poverty his family endured and threatens to stand up during the funeral service to denounce all of the mourning as a lie. A slight change can be heard vocally as well in the song. With most of the album, Gibbard doesn’t exude much emotion in his voice, despite the highly emotional topic of the lyrics, but with this song, you can feel an undertone of anger in his voice just wanting to break loose and call all of the people at the service out. Just listening to the song is emotionally straining.
Much of the music on the album is also emotionally straining, and often does a great job of reflecting the lyrics. Each song guitarist Chris Walla does a great job of achieving this. Especially in
Styrofoam Plates. Walla plays a riff so slow, it gets on my nerves sometimes, but I find that this is what the band wants. By doing this, they help the listener feel the way that they do, and after the emotional break, he speeds up the tempo a bit to finally help release the listeners anger, as well as Gibbard’s. Walla plays a bit of an odd riff in
We Laugh Indoors. After Gibbard is done singing a line, he plays a pretty interesting riff, and much like
Styrofoam Plates during Gibbard’s emotional release Walla plays a bit faster and palm mutes a couple times to help build up some angst before the release.
Another interesting thing I find is that in songs like
Blacking Out the Friction and
Why You’d Want to Live Here there’s some distortion (though it may be bassist Nick Harmer, which, if so, would be the only notable bass on the entire album.) However, usually I don’t care for distortion at all in slower songs like the ones in these songs, but with these songs, I don’t mind at all.
Drummer Michael Schorr also does an extraordinary job. Due to Walla’s riffs being so slow at times, Schorr has to lead many of the songs with some interesting drum beats to make sure that the listener doesn’t get too bored before the climax of the song. One notable drum-driven track is
We Laugh Indoors. It opens up with an interesting beat for a couple seconds before Walla joins to play his oddly alluring riff, and Gibbard starts singing. To pile on to all of the hype I’ve already given
Styrofoam Plates, Schorr does something I find very interesting. Just before the emotional breakdown by Gibbard, Schorr plays a drum roll, which I feel shows the anger building up in Gibbard and the listener until it’s finally all released.
The heart-wrenching guitar riffs mixed with the emotion-filled lyrics help to make
The Photo Album a great listen for any indie fan, or a great starting place for anybody trying to get into indie and/or Death Cab for Cutie. 4.5/5
Pros
-Gibbard “different styles of writing” make each song interesting and different
-Walla’s riffs are imaginative and very catchy
-Schorr’s drum beats drive some of the songs that may be a bit too slow for some
Cons
-No audible bass
-Gets a bit slow and monotonous at times
Recommended Tracks
-Steadier Footing
-We Laugh Indoors
-Styrofoam Plates
