Death Cab for Cutie’s album is about grief – and it’s for you

They usually hold court in theatres, but for the last few years, the beloved indie act Death Cab for Cutie has moonlit as an arena rock band. That’s because they took their career-defining albums 2003’s “Transatlanticism,” and later, 2005’s “Plans,” on an anniversary run — recognising that in the decades since their release, the records have only grown larger, resonating with new audiences.

“There was such a sense of there being a power greater than us, not necessarily in a spiritual sense, but in the communing with the audience each night,” said guitarist and keyboardist Dave Depper. “It was so concentrated and on such an epic scale ... It felt important to be able to tap into that energy and somehow transfer it into the feeling of this next record.” On Friday, the band released “I Built You a Tower,” their 11th studio album and second with producer John Congleton. But this is not simply another full-length offering from artists in their veterancy. It is one at an unusual crossroads: A band looking to continue harnessing the enthusiasm of their nostalgic listenership, and one simultaneously experiencing grief.

“I spent a lot of 2023 going through this very painful experience of a separation and eventual divorce,” said frontman and lyricist Ben Gibbard. That informed the record — and happened right as they were embarking on the “Transatlanticism” tour, a run where Gibbard did double-duty, performing two sets. It was also a celebration of his side project the Postal Service, marking the 20th anniversary of that group’s sole album, “Give Up.”

Navigating all those realities was a challenge. “I was doing a lot of context switching and in order to do that context switching, certainly as it pertained to my personal life, I had to put all that stuff in a building, as it were, and just lock the door,” he said. “I started to write a lot about how we contextualise, compartmentalise, specifically our grief.” And a record was born.

Gibbard credits the anniversary tours with reinvigorating his writing.

“I have come to the conclusion over the years that the fans are always right. The records that they think are the best ones are the best records,” he said. “I didn’t want to write ‘Transatlanticism 2,’ but I wanted it to really build on the spirit of that tour.”

He asked himself: What is it about those songs that continue to connect? “My best work are the pieces that are very emotionally honest, earnest and open,” he said. “I think a lot of my songs that are the best ones are the ones that are very detail oriented. ... They kind of sing like real tiny movies.” There are modern examples of that across “I Built You a Tower,” like in the single “Punching the Flowers,” which takes the image of a toddler stomping on plants and uses it as a metaphor for fatalist frustrations.

And sonically, there are echoes of Death Cab’s most beloved albums — found in the staccato rhythms of drummer Jason McGerr on a track like “How Heavenly a State,” for example - or the vocal performance of “Stone Over Water” or “Pep Talk,” while avoiding self-imitation.

Gibbard and Depper credit Congleton for pushing them to avoid perfectionist tendencies, reminding them that flaws give life to songs.

“Perfection is the enemy of good rock music, of good guitar music. It really is the push and pull between the instruments. It’s the fact that guitar is a little bit out of tune against the other one.

It’s that the drummer rushes a little in the chorus. The vocal is just a little out of the tune or the harmony just kind of wavers a bit against the lead vocal. All of our favorite records sound like that,” said Gibbard. “A big part of why we love those records is because we hear the humanity and collective fallibility of that. And that’s been wiped away, you know, in this age of AI, more than ever,” agreed Depper. So they endeavoured to make an album full of heart — not a glossy, mechanised product.

Associated Press