Review: Death Cab for Cutie, "Codes and Keys"

Codes and Keys
Death Cab for Cutie
Atlantic
05.31.11

As Beck and Damon Albarn know all too well, your celebrity fantasy girlfriend only becomes a proper muse when she leaves you. Much cyberink has been spilled by Death Cab for Cutie fans in the months leading up to their latest album, Codes and Keys, especially since signing with Atlantic brought them perilously close to following Kings of Leon down the Grammy trail to hell with Plans -- a situation the band only saved itself from by taking a hard right turn into the darkness with the followup, 2008's Narrow Stairs. 

And then lead singer and songwriter Ben Gibbard goes and pledges his troth, whatever that means, to former indie It girl Zooey Deschanel. So we can go ahead and write off these post-indie Pacific Northwest sweethearts once and for all, right? Well, not exactly. Yes, Ben's lyrical edge has become dulled considerably -- nothing like falling in love to inspire a line like "When there's a burning in your heart / An endless yearning in your heart / Build it bigger than the sun", from Codes'  leadoff single, "You Are A Tourist." (This coming from the man who once sang "We'll pretend that it meant something / so much more / But it was vile, and it was cheap.")  And there's also something else to consider: a new and disturbingly severe adult-contemporary Pro Tools polish that distances Ben emotionally. Gone is the in-your-ear confessional of Transatlanticism, probably for good.

The good news is that the band's actual sound is more fascinating than ever, a coalescing of their various ideas about what it means to be a true pop romantic and yet have a bra in and a knack for atmosphere -- at this point, they're the Walkmen without angst, the Flaming Lips without affectation, Coldplay with songs. Much of the credit for that goes to the arrangements of My Bloody Valentine alumnus and alt-rock mainstay Alan Moulder, who airbrushes the sounds together into a new pop impressionism in the same way that the band synthesizes their influences. More importantly, he also keeps dragging in dark elements to keep Gibbard on his toes. So "Home Is A Fire" sounds nervous when Ben isn't, and "Doors Unlocked and Open" comes on with a deceptive attack much tougher than the sentiment behind it.

Death Cab for Cutie may be more mainstream by now than their old fans would ever care to admit -- there's an almost ominous twinge of '80s prog in the melody of "Unobstructed Views" -- but they still give great texture, and Ben remains genuine enough to make you wonder what's so bad about feeling good, especially since he's smart enough not to trust his new happiness completely. Most love songs don't have a hook like "night is gonna fall and the vultures will surround you."

Graded using the Third Eye Method:
Impact: 52. 
The production takes the focus off Ben, which is not good for a romantic. However, his approach has always been more universal than personal, so it's a minor setback.    
Innovation: 68.
They may be settling into graceful middle-age, but they're not becoming obvious. This could well be the future of MOR rock.
Integrity: 77.
Sunny and positive may not be what you want from Death Cab, but it's a convincing argument all the same.