Death Cab for Cutie
Codes & Keys #

The new album of a band so dear to me, the Death Cab for Cutie, is released on May 31st.

"Codes & Keys" is the title.

What can I say... it's simply Wonderful. As soon as I heard the first track <<Home is A Fire>>, you can already sense the maturity achieved by Gibbard & co., who play with electronics, keyboards, use everything they can like Lego bricks, to build many colorful Sound Paintings.

The title track <<Codes & Keys>> has extraordinary sounds, a very Beatles-like piano, and beautiful choruses. What else could you expect from a band like Death Cab? After Transatlanticism, Plans & Narrow Stairs, which in my opinion are the pearls of their discography and gems of contemporary music, what will remain for posterity, whether you like it or not, the music of the 2000s, 2010s is Here.

But let's get back to the album.

<<Some Boys>> I think it will become the Anthem of Summer '11 for me (along with The Drums ehehe) a small deviation from the typical death cab sound, it seems they pick up the thread of Narrow Stairs and add some splashes of Modern Indie alla Animal Collective (with all due respect)

the album flows smoothly like a river, the keyboards, okay, there are many, but they sound tremendously good, and then death cab has always accustomed us to Sonic Environments and here the sound layering reaches very high peaks, it's all perfect. The drums are always the diamond tip, and the work behind this album is truly admirable. The more obvious guitars are in <<You Are a Tourist>> and in the last beautiful <<Stay Young, Go Dancing>>

<<Unobstructed View>> flows under the skin and it feels like hearing that final Transatlanticism that accompanied me for so many nights and train journeys. It seems like death cab knows what their fans like, what they want to hear... and in every album, they reserve at least one intro or a piece that melts hearts, that makes you reflect on the moment of listening, on yourself, on the landscape around. Personally, as the album slowly captivated me, while reading the beautiful lyrics (go read them, immediately!), I imagined different landscapes for each song, but one thing seemed recurrent in the piece's atmospheres, a gloomy atmosphere, post-storm, a rainy day in short. It feels like smelling that scent of wet asphalt, which forms the background to <<Monday Morning>> or <<St. Peter's Cathedral>> or a city urban landscape, when everything travels fast, everyone on their own at night in <<Underneath The Sycamore>>

a lighter, more carefree atmosphere is offered by the too brief <<Portable Television>>, fantastic and with a melody that immediately got stuck in my head.

After listening to the last track, which invites us to stay young and go dancing, how can you not sigh and press Play again?

I haven't managed to do it yet!

Thank you Death Cab, you've hit the target again this time.

as big as a fist, right in the chest.

 "And if you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born
Then it's time to go
And define your destination
There's so many different places to call home (... )  This fire grows higher -
When there's a burning in your heart"