Asphalt Meadows
by Death Cab For Cutie

For the post-Chris Walla era albums, this is better than Thank You for Today but not as good as Kintsugi. It contains amazing tracks like I Don't Know How I Survive, Foxglove Through the Clearcut, Wheat Like Waves, and I'll Never Give Up on You that hold their own against DCFC's best tracks, but then there's bland/under-cooked tracks like Roman Candles, Asphalt Meadows, and Rand McNally that prevent this from being a solid album without skippable tracks. Then there's middling tracks like Here to Forever, Pepper, I Miss Strangers, and Fragments from the Decade that are fine and passable but just missing something and could have benefited from taking some creative left-turns to make them more interesting.

All in all, this album shows that the band still has plenty of roads left in their shoes after the relative disappointment of Thank You for Today, and the two members who replaced the seemingly unreplaceable Chris Walla seem to have come into their own and found a comfortable niche in this new era.

From Brad1770 01/06/2024 03:16 | #300935

Sadly here the highs of ‘Plans’ are a long faded memory. Wanted to like this , tried to like this but nothing jelled

TBC...

Album Rating:

1.I Don't Know How I Survive 78
2.Roman Candles 72
3.Asphalt Meadows 77
4.Rand McNally 71
5.Here To Forever 74
6.Foxglove Through The Clearcut 76
7.Pepper 75
8.I Miss Strangers 77
9.Wheat Like Waves 67
10.Fragments From The Decade
11.I'll Never Give Up On You

Yeah a really strong new outing from Death Cab - feel I particularly connected with the emotive songwriting, interesting lyrics and immaculate production :-)

From HoldenM 09/16/2022 05:09 | #289707

The band's best and most adventurous in over a decade. Even when the songwriting isn't quite where you want it to be, the production is some of the most forward-thinking and intense of Death Cab's career. Great stuff.