The word ‘Kintsugi’ means a “style of art where they take fractured, broken ceramics and put them back together with very obvious, real gold. It’s making the repair of an object a visual part of its history.”

It has understandably been a hard four years for Death Cab For Cutie since Codes & Keys came out. First, Ben Gibbard’s divorce makes for a departure from the newfound love that existed in songs like “Stay Young, Go Dancing” on Codes. Second, guitarist and founding member – and perhaps most importantly long-time producer – Chris Walla decided to leave the band, with this being his final album. The result of these situations is Kintsugi. 

Entirely true to its name, the album expresses the void felt by Gibbard – the need to fix (or fill) something that is broken, to find something that is missing. The opening “No Room In Frame” begins with music that feels desolate and incomplete before Gibbard solemnly admits, “I don’t know where to begin.” The eerie music carries on, as the choppy guitars and drums add weight to the heartbreak of the line “And I guess it’s not a failure we could help / And we’ll both go on to get lonely with someone else.” The repetition of “with someone else” adds another blow to the gut, really letting the sheer desolation of the song sink in. One track in and we already have the fractured heartbreak that resonates throughout Kintsugi, just as the name implies.

It has been just over three years since the release Death Cab For Cutie’s highly experimental Narrow Stairs. Differing from the groundbreaking Transatlanticism and haunting Plans, Narrow Stairs had a more raw feel to it – more electric guitars, distortion, and heavier instrumentation. That is not to say that it did not feature the intricate nature of Death Cab’s previous efforts, as tracks such as “Talking Bird” and “The Ice Is Getting Thinner” were poignant and mysterious cuts. In this way, the experimentation of Narrow Stairs made it a record that took time to resonate and fully appreciate – it was a record that got better with time.

However, while recording the highly anticipated follow-up record, the perfectly titled Codes and Keys, Death Cab explained that the record would be a departure from Narrow Stairs, equipped with more keyboards and less guitars. Sure enough, that’s exactly the case. What results from this different approach is a record of true beauty, encompassing every aspect of Death Cab For Cutie’s discography into one definitive record. It’s the haunting keyboards, meek vocals, and eerie fuzzy distortion echoed throughout Codes and Keysthat generate a record that pushes the limits of their sound to the peak.