DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE
I Built You A Tower (Anti-)
Fluctuating between angsty and wistful, Death Cab For Cutie’s 11th album is deeply human. In a return to their indie roots (signing with Anti- after 22 years with Atlantic) the band benefit from greater musical experience as they recreate their messier 00s sounds.
I Built You A Tower is a post-divorce album, but it’s not one that is outwardly resentful. Instead, Ben Gibbard articulates the difficulties of compartmentalizing emotion, reacting to each vulnerable ballad by putting up a punkier wall of distortion, a process immediately established in abrupt transition between its opening tracks.
I Built You A Tower (b) takes the romantic tones of its A-side counterpart and makes them hopeless, despairing, and exhausted. It is an album that is raw and honest in its acceptance of collapse, if at times melodramatic. There’s no closure, no artificial hope, and the discomfort this creates is perhaps the most rewarding and praiseworthy feat of the album.
words MENNA WILSON
