Rocker (feedbot)
Platinum Member
Let’s say you’ve just had a fight with a loved one: heated emotions, hasty phrases thrown and muscles locked with stress. Then you take a break and really think about what they mean to you, and which path you want to take next. That exact sensation of walking through your own emotions and trying to unpick the stitches which have compressed you into that argument is the same feeling you’ll get from listening to ‘I Built You A Tower’. Death Cab For Cutie have created a record that’s at times tense, at other points contemplative, but always masterful in exploring the intricacies of the human heart.
Obviously we love the first single, ‘Punching The Flowers’. It’s laden with taut riffs, regret, pretty little seconds of guitar flair and a whole lot of bitterness – in short, all the things we love about Death Cab. ‘Pep Talk’ is the highlight of the record though, a painfully vulnerable sunlit morning of a song that begs for help while realising that the strongest help will come from within. The combination of grief and the realisations which come afterward are woven into every second of ‘I Built You A Tower’, which makes for a sometimes painful but always powerful listen.
The duet of title tracks which bookend the album feel like a summary of Death Cab past and future colliding to create this present record. ‘I Built You A Tower (a)’ is dreamy and wistful, a chiming evocation of placing a crush on a pedestal, but then the rose-tinted glasses are snatched away for the sinister, post-punk ‘(b)’ take on the same lyrics. The haters might say that putting two versions of the same song on a record is just rockstar laziness, but putting a pair of Jekyll and Hyde love songs nearly back to back is something of a revelation. It sums up the bipolar nature of ‘I Built You A Tower’ so well – absolutely savage shred followed by the quietest coffee shop melancholia – and it’s a delight.
On the quiet end of the spectrum, we’ve got the hopeful solitude of ‘Stone Over Water’ or the eerily apologetic ‘Full Of Stars’, both of which would stand proud on a purely intimate and acoustic record. Then, for fans of razor-sharp darkness, we’re given ‘How Heavenly A State’ and the groaning electronica that highlights ‘Riptides’. Sometimes a song can even delve into both moods at once, like ‘Envy The Birds’ which wheels in and out of whips synth clouds and mountainous drum drops like its namesake, or the deceptively mellow ‘The Flavour of Metal’ which showcases harsh chords and childhood nostalgia. There really is a Death Cab For Cutie for everyone within ‘I Built You A Tower’, and a particular heartstring that each song will pluck.
By the end of this, their eleventh album, you’ll feel like you know Death Cab better than even, and, more importantly, you will know yourself in greater depth. Two plus decades making emotionally resonant rock gives you a certain layer of expertise and there’s never even a second of ‘I Built You A Tower’ that makes you think that they’re resting on their laurels. The masterful sound of a band reaching into their own personal and musical past, albeit with one eye focused on where the future might take them, makes for one hell of a listen.
KATE ALLVEY
Obviously we love the first single, ‘Punching The Flowers’. It’s laden with taut riffs, regret, pretty little seconds of guitar flair and a whole lot of bitterness – in short, all the things we love about Death Cab. ‘Pep Talk’ is the highlight of the record though, a painfully vulnerable sunlit morning of a song that begs for help while realising that the strongest help will come from within. The combination of grief and the realisations which come afterward are woven into every second of ‘I Built You A Tower’, which makes for a sometimes painful but always powerful listen.
The duet of title tracks which bookend the album feel like a summary of Death Cab past and future colliding to create this present record. ‘I Built You A Tower (a)’ is dreamy and wistful, a chiming evocation of placing a crush on a pedestal, but then the rose-tinted glasses are snatched away for the sinister, post-punk ‘(b)’ take on the same lyrics. The haters might say that putting two versions of the same song on a record is just rockstar laziness, but putting a pair of Jekyll and Hyde love songs nearly back to back is something of a revelation. It sums up the bipolar nature of ‘I Built You A Tower’ so well – absolutely savage shred followed by the quietest coffee shop melancholia – and it’s a delight.
On the quiet end of the spectrum, we’ve got the hopeful solitude of ‘Stone Over Water’ or the eerily apologetic ‘Full Of Stars’, both of which would stand proud on a purely intimate and acoustic record. Then, for fans of razor-sharp darkness, we’re given ‘How Heavenly A State’ and the groaning electronica that highlights ‘Riptides’. Sometimes a song can even delve into both moods at once, like ‘Envy The Birds’ which wheels in and out of whips synth clouds and mountainous drum drops like its namesake, or the deceptively mellow ‘The Flavour of Metal’ which showcases harsh chords and childhood nostalgia. There really is a Death Cab For Cutie for everyone within ‘I Built You A Tower’, and a particular heartstring that each song will pluck.
By the end of this, their eleventh album, you’ll feel like you know Death Cab better than even, and, more importantly, you will know yourself in greater depth. Two plus decades making emotionally resonant rock gives you a certain layer of expertise and there’s never even a second of ‘I Built You A Tower’ that makes you think that they’re resting on their laurels. The masterful sound of a band reaching into their own personal and musical past, albeit with one eye focused on where the future might take them, makes for one hell of a listen.
KATE ALLVEY