Is Death Cab Great Again?

I'm totally fine admitting that I completely underestimated Death Cab For Cutie, and how weird I am for actually liking them. I despised the band for its incorporation into The OC and staunchly refused to even try listening to the band for years, until the first time I listened to "Death of an Interior Decorator" of off my little brother's copy of Transatlaticism and begrudgingly gave the band another shot, only to find that I love We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes and The Photo Album. I don't like the two most recent albums as much, but "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" has been my favorite song to play on a guitar for two years now.

DCFC's new album Narrow Stairs comes out in May, but the lead single "I Will Possess Your Heart" is out in two formats: the 8-plus minute album version, and the far inferior 4-minute single mix that's available on iTunes. It's an epic track in its own right, and the first real evidence that the band is done with its stagnation over the past two albums and is finally moving forward again. The way the instruments just fade out to reveal Ben Gibbard's voice and then re-enter the soundscape to fill out the track is just incredible. It's the best song I've heard from them in a long while.

Don't get me wrong, Transatlaticism and Plans are good albums with some great songs, but they were really very similar and narrow in scope. "I Will Posses Your Heart" sounds like the band is finally looking into the future, finally trying to grow as a band again, and that kind of development is always good news to me. Take a listen to the full-length version of the track, which features no vocals for the first haunting and expansive four minutes.


Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart