Transatlanticism Essex Junction VT

Transatlanticism

Death Cab For Cutie

Barsuk Records, 2003

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 05/04/2004

As I alluded to recently under less happy circumstances, one of the main side benefits of this gig is the opportunity to be introduced to new music. When the Daily Vault's very own Sean McCarthy put Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism near the peak of his 2003 Top Ten, I paid attention. (Although it did take me awhile to get around to making the purchase... so much music, so little time.)

After a few listens, there's no longer any puzzle as to why this disc made any number of Top Ten lists this January. It's a moody, airy, brilliant compendium of artfully crafted songs whose quality actually lives up to their pretensions.

For the record, Death Cab For Cutie (DCFC to fans) is anchored by singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard and guitarist/producer Christopher Walla, with longtime cohort Nicholas Harmer on bass and new guy Jason McGerr on the drums. Gibbard and Walla also contribute keyboards and textures that fill out the atmospherics of many of these tracks.

The music itself is a mix of ethereal ballads sung with genuine sadness and powerful yet sleepy-eyed guitars-and-harmonies rock. The songs are a circular, yearning series of vignettes, little moments that blur into each other like an Impressionist painting. More sophisticated than Jimmy Eat World and wittier than Coldplay, with Tranatlanticism Death Cab For Cutie have created a true album, themed and flowing and progressive in its moods and expressiveness.