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.
