Death Cab For Cutie - Codes and Keys

I always remember when I was wee pre-teen that people would go giddy at the mention of Death Cab For Cutie, who were, to me at the time, nothing more than a name (in the same spirit that Bring Me the Horizon, Forever the Sickest Kids and Of Montreal are just names to me). The band have over 121 million listens on music-networking site Last.FM - a total matched by very few (they're 30 million above David Bowie [whose 'Low' album they coincidentally cite as an influence to this], for Christ's sake). Yet amongst friends and school, I never heard of them.

I've also only ever listened to Transatlanticism from them, which, whilst good, I haven't bothered to purchase or download since. So enduring fans of the band might be a little aggrieved by this review. Codes and Keys, their first album in 3 years, has already drawn a mixture of surprise and criticism for taking the band in a slightly more mainstream, poppy direction. The opening tracks, 'Home is a Fire' and 'Codes and Keys', kick off the record with perhaps some of the most conventional and inoffensive tunes since Scouting for Girls: the former a slightly more atmospheric and interesting one than the piano-pop of the latter.


'Some Boys' seems to take the band down a more experimental route however, with greater focus on the rhythm sections and various snares and drums thrown in for a more exciting pace - at times coming close to Yeasayer's sound. But again the lyrics are much poppier than some would've come to expect from the band - nice but predictable rhymes ("Some boys are singing... joylessly flinging... girls that they're bringing"). My favourite track on the album, 'Doors Unlocked and Open' is a direct pastiche of late 70s/early 80s krautrock genre, sort of combining the urgent basslines of Joy Division with some atmospheric synths The Cure might have dabbled with.

Such riffs are thus put to a more poppy use in 'You Are A Tourist', complete with whiny vocals and moody bridges that for me all just combine to a really corny, boring track. It's certainly catchy though, and given a couple of listens I'm sure it'll grow on me. Competing against Elbow's "Lippy Kids" for the Most-Tranquil-and-Beautiful opening of the year, 'Unobstructed Views' is a long, drawn-out pouring of electromance. It unabashedly proclaims "There's no eye in the sky, just our love" to return unfortunately to the nonsensical rhymes, but the instrumental is too good to put down. 'Monday Morning' then returns to pop - repeating its title inbetween some "ooh"s - and it comes as a bit of a culture shock with its progressions and chords you can spot a mile off.

It gets worse - 'Portable Television' sounds like it could be on an Apple advert with its twee pianos and generic "TV is boring, go outside" messages that just smack of 80s educational advertising. The powerpop does have some good moments though - 'Underneath the Sycamore' sounds like someone trying to sing Joy Division in an optimistic voice ("you have seen your darkest rooms/ I have slept in makeshift tombs") in amongst some easy hooks; whether or not it'll stand the test of time is another matter entirely. Ben Gibbard is at his most vocally irksome in 'St. Peter's Cathedral' with a corny narrative structure and even employing some "bum-bum-bum"s towards the end. Again, the instrumentals are all quite admirable but lack down by an almost rushed, ultimately shite, vocal.


The final track does redeem the record with some effortlessly chirpy and uplifting melodies, and whilst the lyrics are overwhelmingly cheesy (assumedly about wife Zooey Deschanel) you'd have to have a heart of stone not to find the track cute.

Yet cuteness is such an odd topic to end the album on - having started off with so many sweeping and lingering Enoesque electronics. Taking a look at the band's discography chronologically I guess you could make a case for it rounding off the darker themes of 2008's Narrow Stairs, but for me this album seems to try and tangle 3 or 4 different genres with no general sense of structure or cohesion. Tracks vary almost at random between radio-hits and inward reflection, and at their poppiest the band can just be infuriatingly bland. However, there are moments of excellence in the first half of the album - but just where a band goes on from this jack of all trades is questionable.

Rating: 5.5/10
Highlights: Unobstructed Views, Doors Unlocked and Open, Home is a Fire, You Are A Tourist, Stay Young, Go Dancing
Avoid: Portable Television, Monday Morning, Codes and Keys
Artwork Watch: erm...