Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You For Today (Atlantic / Barsuk, 2018)

Death Cab For Cutie
Thank You For Today
Atlantic / Barsuk
2018

Rating: 6.5 near-sighted ophthalmologists out of 10

Hey guys, there’s a new Death Cab For Cutie record out called “Thank You For Today“!  It sounds just like that Postal Service band, only less electronic!

To put it quite simply – the songs that sound like classic Death Cab For Cutie songs?  I quite like those.  There’s a place in my heart for somber Ben Gibbard indie pop, a place that’s been there for twenty years now, a place that I doubt ever goes away.  But the bad eighties pastiche of “I Dreamt We Spoke Again” and “Gold Rush,” the song that sounds like an Imagine Dragons cover?  Oof, that’s some hot garbage, and it actually seems even worse than it actually is because those two are the first and third songs - putting a bad taste in your mouth from the start.  Luckily, I stuck with it and the good far outweighs the bad, and unless you’re listening to this on cassette it’s damn easy to skip to the next track.  The entire second half of the record is especially good – “Autumn Love” and “Northern Lights” should have been the first two songs, and album closer “60 & Punk” is one of their best tracks this century.  A little better tracking during post-production to bury the couple of turds floating in the pond would have worked wonders here. 

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth (Atlantic, 2016)

Sturgill Simpson
A Sailor's Guide to Earth
Atlantic
2016

Rating: 7 empty bottles out of 10

On "A Sailor's Guide to Earth," there is a song called "Sea Stories" that really turned my ear - "Maybe get high, play a little GoldenEye on that old 64."  It might seem like a somewhat minor line, and definitely reminds me of college, but to me it's another pebble on the mountain of evidence that Sturgill Simpson is running in a different direction from typical modern country.  The fact that the very next song is a cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" is even further proof.  He countrifies the cover up so well though that if you weren't familiar with the original (I'm assuming these people exist somewhere, mostly very young or only recently revived from a coma) you'd think it just another of his songs - songs that sound mainstream, or at least what should be mainstream if modern country wasn't just regular pop music with an occasional slide guitar.  The best track, "All Around You," features a horn section (the Dap Kings!, and they're actually on a number of songs here) and is as much a soul song as it is country.  This is a good record, worthy of your attention, especially if you have any interest in non-pop country at all.