What is to be said about Death Cab for Cutie’s The Photo Album? As a record, it sounds great, is intelligent, at times catchy and overall very pleasant to listen to whenever. With that being said, it wasn’t until Transatlanticism that the band was discovered, signed, and plastered all over The OC soundtracks and messenger bags everywhere. Fans still love “the old Death Cab” when referring mostly to songs off of Something About Airplanes and We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, but for some reason, The Photo Album just fell in-between the cracks. When I saw them live in 2009, they only played one song off of the release. I know some Death Cab “fans” that haven’t even heard “A Movie Script Ending”.
Enter “Debate Exposes Doubt,” the album’s closer. It is awesome. The track kicks off with those guitar hooks that made Death Cab sell a ton of records for Atlantic and Jason McGerr’s absolutely locked in drums. What makes the track for me are a few things, and thankfully, every member plays a huge part creating something special here.
First of all, as far as production goes, this album is my favorite. The drums on this album sound so… real. Not the kind of “real” that you hear on a Pavement record where you know the drummer is playing a piece of shit kit and is out of time, no, Jason McGerr’s real is different. The sound that comes out of his kit is from a guy that has sat down and tuned drums for years and knows exactly how to hit them. The production meets the wide-open drum sounds of We Have the Facts… with the addition of better gear, and a much better attention to detail. You can hear the wood resonate in McGerr’s perfectly tuned bass drum as it bops through the song.
Awesome drummer Jason McGerr
Like many of their other songs, the guitars talk back and forth as if they were one instrument, playfully playing on each-other without one note being misplaced. It is obvious that guitarists Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla either sat down with each other and spent hours after hours figuring out the way the other played or both have the ability to read minds.
The bass wonders around like always, fitting in some perfect space that has been left between the locking guitars and drums. The bass walks off of the page just enough for musicians to say “Dude! I never would have thought of that… but I wish I could.”
Then there is the melody. Painfully monotonous considering the space that Gibbard is given with the music, I think this is the best part of the song. His coldness and simplicity over some pretty clever lyrics make the track for me.
Check it out here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_LJUeKc4NM
Sadly, I couldn’t find a live video, and if that is the case, the band should be playing this one more often.
In this first installment of Music Mondays – in conjunction with my Twitter account - I want to showcase an overlooked song that I feel has yet to receive the credit it deserves.
The first song of this installment is “Girl Afraid” by The Smiths. The track originally appeared on 1984′s Hatfull of Hollow. Say what you will about front-man Morrissey and his current efforts – and you should still be praising Marr for his work with Modest Mouse and The Cribs – but in the 80s, The Smiths were putting out catchy songs and very solid albums. One of my favorite songs of all time by The Smiths is “Girl Afraid,” and I think the reason that mainstream America didn’t agree was because of just how much the song shifts back and forth. It didn’t resonate like “This Charming Man” or “How Soon is Now?” for some reason that I don’t totally get. Simple chords with some strange changes, Morrissey’s cool, bizzarre lyrics detail a could-be romance between two people that just don’t quite get each other.
Johnny Marr absolutely kills during this track. When I heard the song, I instantly had to get to a guitar to figure out what the hell he was doing. His style on this song sits somewhere between country twang and The Edge’s pretty guitar lines – without delay. The bass clicks with the drums and the rhythm section compliments Marr’s playing perfectly.
Guitarist Johnny Marr in the 80s
The part that I can’t get over about this song, though, is just its overall energy. Marr’s brilliantly crafted changes make the listener’s ears shift quickly, and just as you think you’ve settled into a verse, it shifts halfway through. How he could take simple progressions like this, make a brilliant and jumpy guitar part over them and mash them together so seamlessly is beyond me. This solidifies Marr’s place as one of my favorite guitarists.
So please, enjoy the link to a live performance of this song, and if the feeling is right, dust off that old copy of Hatfull of Hollow – I assure you that Morrissey also has a case of the Mondays.
Guitarist Johnny Marr in the 80s
