Death Cab for Cutie in tier list
except albums 1-3 = D
RELISTEN1: Death Cab was one of the earlier artists I listened to. This was back when I hadn’t ironed out the method I have now— I only listened to each album once, I wasn’t consistent about listening every day, and when I did listen I’d just listen to as many albums as I had time for. I remember one empty day where I binged through 3 or 4 of Death Cab’s albums in a sitting, and then a couple days later I listened to the next one. In addition to that, at that time I was more committed to a very very short explanation, if any. That is to say, this was originally ranked based off of sloppy listening and sloppy record keeping. Most of the songs I did keep in my library were because a friend of mine really liked them and I wanted to try to at least learn to like some of the songs, if not the band as a whole. And then, as time passed, I found that I liked those songs more and more. Most of the relatively few Death Cab songs I did give a chance like that to I grew to rather love. I’ve been meaning to give a more engaged relisten for ages now.
The first thing I noticed was that I still definitely don’t care for the first three albums. I remember my general impression the first time around was that it was boring and slow and samey. The only thing I wrote down was the first three albums were particularly poor, and I think I stand by that. Especially the first album, which just feels weak all around. Production is poor, songs sound like demos. Songwriting isn’t there yet. There are a couple songs that I feel are close, that have good ideas, that I feel are almost good, but none that I liked as they were. That feeling of being almost but not quite good stayed pretty strong throughout their albums, even after those three when they started getting good. Photo Album, Plans, and Narrow Stairs are all pretty alright. All have at least a song or two that I love in them, but all of them also have lots of songs that just miss for me. I think my biggest, most consistent problem with the typical Death Cab for Cutie song is that it has too much space, too much repetition of an idea that just doesn’t quite warrant it. I’m almost always intrigued, and then I almost always lose interest when it never quite develops enough. Codes and Keys, Kintsugi, both of those are pretty strong. I think they both still suffer from my general distaste for the slowness/length/mellowness of many of Death Cab’s songs. Though I should say, my taste has changed and developed such that there are lots of songs that catch me now that never would have before. Kintsugi in particular, listening now it was about half songs that I really quite like, and then half that I don’t care much about at all. But I don’t dislike the worse half, and an entire half full of songs I really quite like is pretty solid. The last two albums, Thank You For Today and Asphalt Meadows, I really quite like. Both are very solid, I like ‘em pretty much all the way through. There are also a couple EPs that are pretty good.
I think that, like I suspected, I like the band loads more than I did at first. They’ve developed remarkable highs that I didn’t expect, and many of the reasons I had to not like them have been removed or lessened. But not all of the reasons. I do still think that they tend toward a song that doesn’t do as much with itself as I’d prefer, and toward a song that’s just plain slower and less exciting than I prefer. But, they also definitely have gotten better with each album and I find myself wanting to like them. All things considered, I think I’m gonna go with a pretty high A-. That’s pretty high considering how consistently I don’t care for so much of their stuff, but there really is so much I do like so much, and I do think they’ve only become stronger as they’ve made music, I really do want to like them. Enough that I think I actually do like them. Maybe I’ll come back later and kick myself as I send them back into the Cs or something, but for now I’m positively inclined and I think I’m alright with that
tunafruitsandwitch 