Review: Manchester Orchestra – A Black Mile To The Surface

Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface

Before recording anything for Manchester Orchestra’s fifth album, Andy Hull aimed to deconstruct what the band was. “My challenge was whatever you’re instinctively going to want to play on the record, try and not do that,” Hull explained to UPROXX earlier this summer, “try and do the opposite of that thing.” Obviously, there isn’t anything like a simple “how-to” guide on achieving such a goal, so the band worked with multiple producers at various studios to create a record that could cement their legacy as one of this era’s great rock bands. And after a year full of obsessive detail, second guessing, and a grueling recording process, Manchester Orchestra emerged with A Black Mile To The Surface, their most majestic and challenging record yet.

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Ben Gibbard Talks With Stereogum

Death Cab for Cutiie

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie sat down with Stereogum:

We’ve been demoing some songs here and there with Dave [Depper] and Zack [Rae], who are gonna be a part of this next record, people who are members of the band now. I feel like they know our band better than we do, because they were outside of it for so long. Their aesthetic take on the material is so valuable because they were fans of the band before they were in the band, so they could say like, “I want what you think you’re doing with this song, but you’re not pulling it off.”