The Daily Spin, September 13
Death Cab for Cutie | Transatlanticism
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Transatlanticism (2003)
Artist: Death Cab For Cutie
Link:
In the twenty years since this album came out, Death Cab have established themselves as a nearly quintessential act in the indie world, a reminder of the emotive roots that have cultivated one of the genre’s most successful acts - and despite it all, nothing is quite so impactful as this album.
Picture-perfect soundscapes highlight the best of Death Cab - never more so than on the three-track run between ‘Tiny Vessels’ and ‘Passenger Seat’, title track included - it is, in my opinion, the peak of their catalog. One of the things the band was particularly good at was establishing an emotional setting, and though - yes - there were detractors, a lot of that hatred was rooted in the ugly misogyny of the aughts, the sort of people who decided that emotionally vulnerable music like this wasn’t nearly rock-hard enough for their liking.
Despite that, though, Transatlanticism survived and thrived, almost in spite of it - and indeed, as that sort of attitude has gradually faded somewhat from the center of the public spirit, it’s only become clearer what a remarkable effort was this - never emo, there wasn’t enough antithetical spirit to class it that way, but through space and time, it was clear that there was something more than just jangly guitar and soft vocalizations.
Rating: 8.6/10
Best Tracks: Transatlanticism; The Sound of Settling; Passenger Seat
Worst Tracks: Lightness