Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Death Cab For Cutie, Atlantic Records 2018.
Thank You For Today is the ninth album for Washington band Death Cab For Cutie.
It’s been produced by Rich Costey who has produced two of my favourite bands, Franz Ferdinand and Muse.
The success of their previous release, 2015’s Kintsugi, set a very high bar to follow.
It debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums Chart and also the Top Rock Album chart. Its success resulted in a Grammy nomination, the eighth time they’ve made the list.
For this album, the original lineup of Ben Gibbard, Nick Harmer, and Jason McGerr were joined in the studio by two new members: Dave Depper, who has worked with Ray Lamontagne and the Fruit Bats among others, and Zac Ray who has performed with the magnificent Lana Del Rey and Gnarls Barkely.
These extra musicians have been part of Death Cab For Cutie’s touring band for some time so they were a natural fit for the creation of the album.
I do like this album and I think their choice of Rick Costey as producer was an inspired one.
He has a masterly touch in the studio that results in a lushness to the sound without over cluttering it with too much activity.
There’s always space to think and the vocals are always clear.
There are many good tracks on the disc.
I love the up-tempo and percussive single, Gold Rush, and the beautifully layered Near/Far.
The great guitar riff in Northern lights, and likewise in Autumn Love, are augmented by some wonderful melodic bass lines.
And the intriguingly titled final song on the album 60 & Punk starts with a deceptively sparse piano before building to include the entire band in the choruses.
Whether Thank You For Today reaches the dizzy heights of Kintsugi is yet to be seen.
It is a very good album but it’s always hard to produce an equally strong follow up to a world-wide smash hit.
Having said that, Death Cab For Cutie have an impressive list of awards to their credit with virtually all their releases being nominated so anything is possible.
