Death Cab For Cutie – I Built You a Tower

Following nostalgic Transatlanticism anniversary tours that forced them to once more live in the past, Death Cab For Cutie entered the studio to pen their eleventh album, not glossy-eyed about what came before, but with a refreshed enthusiasm reminding them what making an album should feel like.

Paired with frontman Ben Gibbard’s personal turmoil through a painful divorce, I Built You a Tower delights in the signature slick grooves, minimalist movements, and gorgeous soundscapes synonymous with classic Death Cab – while the record’s emotional heartbeat writhes between heartbreak, frustration, self-destruction and the inevitability of picking up the pieces.

Gibbard’s tower serves as a consistent narrative; a foreboding monument erected to process hardships, with each track a brick in a prison wall to be escaped. Be it the soul-searching Full of Stars, crashing out on Punching The Flowers, intrusive thoughts reverberating through Pep Talk, desperation reaching on Riptides, or the dissonant closer lingering on his exhausted refrain: ‘It makes me tired, so tired’.

I Built You a Tower is the sonic diary of a man compartmentalising trauma, and amongst it all, still hanging in there. Set against the backdrop of a rejuvenated band in full flight, this tower is most certainly assembled on solid ground.

Listen to: Punching The Flowers, Pep Talk, Trap Door