Please donate to help save PopMatters. We are moving to WordPress in January out of necessity and need your help.

Death Cab for Cutie Strike Safe Satisfaction with 'Thank You for Today'

Thank You for Today spotlights why Death Cab for Cutie remain atop the pop-rock game (even if they've become too predictable and innocuous to ever outdo themselves again).

                                      
Music
    
        Laura Gibson: Empire Builder
    
Chris Ingalls

        25 Apr 2016
    
Music
    
        Death Cab for Cutie - "Good Help (Is So Hard To Find)" (Singles Going Steady)
    
PopMatters Staff

        15 Apr 2016
    
Music
    
        Made in America Festival 2015
    
James A. Cosby

        19 Oct 2015

Recent

Music

Hozier + Death Cab for Cutie + Rock Radio 104.5's Birthday Show (Photo Gallery)

Radio 104.5's birthday show featured great bands and might have been the unofficial start of summer festival season in the Northeast.

Reviews

The Postal Service: Everything Will Change

Surprisingly, a bunch of sentimental laptop pop songs from ten years ago (Give Up) make for a dynamic and engaging live show.

Music

Benjamin Gibbard: Former Lives

Death Cab for Cutie frontman steps out with a solo effort that works best when he falls back on the high-concept lyrical daring of his earlier work.

Music

Building a Fire: The Benjamin Gibbard Interview

He's the songwriting mastermind behind Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service, and All-Time Quarterback. Now, decades into his career, Benjamin Gibbard sits down with PopMatters to discuss his first-ever solo album, and why an iPhone a capella field recording is the disc's first track ...

Music

Benjamin Gibbard Debut Solo Album, 'Former Lives', Is Streaming in Full

A week ahead of release, Benjamin Gibbard's (Death Cab for Cutie) debut solo slbum, Former Lives, has premiered in full-length album form over on YouTube.

Music

The Most Disappointing Albums of 2011

The selections on this list aren't necessarily bad albums -- some actually happen to be among the most critically acclaimed of this year. In some cases, it's just that the albums weren't what fans were expecting, and in others, they were exactly what they were expecting.

Enio Chiola

Music

Funeral Songs: The Music of 'Six Feet Under'

Two specific sequences from two separate episodes of Six Feet Under illustrate the show's complex and sophisticated use of popular music as both dramatic dramatic device and cultural signifier.

Jer Fairall

Interviews

Death Cab for Cutie Plays One for You

KCRW in Los Angeles hosted Death Cab for Cutie for a private show and question and answer session. The live video and audio air 1 November.

Music

Death Cab for Cutie - "Doors Unlocked and Open" (Cut Copy Remix)

Death Cab for Cutie gears up for remix EP next month with the first of their weekly leakings of the albums seven tracks.

Music

Death Cab for Cutie: Codes & Keys

It's billed as being unique and different -- keyboards instead of guitars! -- but Codes & Keys is the sound of Death Cab at their most generic, disjointed, and disinterested.

Music

Don DeLillo, screeching, and tacos: A night with Death Cab for Cutie

I really do. I love Death Cab for Cutie, but their uninspired and relatively unimpressive show at Chicago's Aragon Theater on April 13th demonstrated that the band, which is an indie rock mainstay, deserves to be able to alter their songs and recreate the musical experience for their fans.

Music

Death Cab for Cutie: Something About Airplanes (Deluxe Edition)

Like an old friend, Death Cab for Cutie's debut album is still every bit as warm, inviting, and lovable as it was ten years ago. Those already familiar with its charms, however, will find relatively little of interest in this two-disc, deluxe reissue.

Reviews

Death Cab for Cutie

Is this what contemporary indie means, to be able to transition back and forth between a commoditized existence and an independently artistic one with relative ease? It may be.

Thomas Hauner

Featured: Top of Home Page

Ungdomskulen, Khia, Rahim...

Music

"Megalomania Doesn't Have a Tax-Bracket": An Interview with Death Cab for Cutie

Suddenly finding himself with a chart-topping album, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard finds himself concerned with more important things than popping open a bottle of bubbly. It's just another day in the fun, crazed universe of Death Cab.

Music

Death Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs

A band as long-lasting as Death Cab would eventually have to regroup and launch their sound into a grittier, more primal direction, shaking off the stigma that comes with entering the Post-Millenial Platinum Club.

Music

Chris Walla: Field Manual

Death Cab for Cutie sideman/indie producer extraordinare finally releases his long-delayed solo album, capitalizing on a sound that wouldn't be out of place on a regular Death Cab album.

Reviews

Death Cab for Cutie: Directions

Music videos as a companion to CDs? It just might work...

Reviews

Death Cab for Cutie: Drive Well, Sleep Carefully [DVD]

The goodness of this film relates directly to the viewers' like or dislike of Death Cab for Cutie songs.

David Bernard

Music

Death Cab For Cutie: Plans

This is an amazing little pop record of amazing little pop songs.

Ryan McDermott

Features

MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of December 2020

Collapse Expand Features

BROWSE ALL ALBUM REVIEWS

Reviews

Collapse Expand Reviews

PM Picks

Collapse Expand Pm Picks

Thank You for Today spotlights why Death Cab for Cutie remain atop the pop-rock game (even if they've become too predictable and innocuous to ever outdo themselves again).

Radio 104.5's birthday show featured great bands and might have been the unofficial start of summer festival season in the Northeast.

Following their creative low point in 2011's Codes & Keys and shedding a band member, Death Cab for Cutie's first new song in years is promising, but not a whole lot else.

Surprisingly, a bunch of sentimental laptop pop songs from ten years ago (Give Up) make for a dynamic and engaging live show.

Death Cab for Cutie frontman steps out with a solo effort that works best when he falls back on the high-concept lyrical daring of his earlier work.

He's the songwriting mastermind behind Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service, and All-Time Quarterback. Now, decades into his career, Benjamin Gibbard sits down with PopMatters to discuss his first-ever solo album, and why an iPhone a capella field recording is the disc's first track ...

A week ahead of release, Benjamin Gibbard's (Death Cab for Cutie) debut solo slbum, Former Lives, has premiered in full-length album form over on YouTube.

The selections on this list aren't necessarily bad albums -- some actually happen to be among the most critically acclaimed of this year. In some cases, it's just that the albums weren't what fans were expecting, and in others, they were exactly what they were expecting.

Two specific sequences from two separate episodes of Six Feet Under illustrate the show's complex and sophisticated use of popular music as both dramatic dramatic device and cultural signifier.

KCRW in Los Angeles hosted Death Cab for Cutie for a private show and question and answer session. The live video and audio air 1 November.

Death Cab for Cutie gears up for remix EP next month with the first of their weekly leakings of the albums seven tracks.

It's billed as being unique and different -- keyboards instead of guitars! -- but Codes & Keys is the sound of Death Cab at their most generic, disjointed, and disinterested.

I really do. I love Death Cab for Cutie, but their uninspired and relatively unimpressive show at Chicago's Aragon Theater on April 13th demonstrated that the band, which is an indie rock mainstay, deserves to be able to alter their songs and recreate the musical experience for their fans.

Like an old friend, Death Cab for Cutie's debut album is still every bit as warm, inviting, and lovable as it was ten years ago. Those already familiar with its charms, however, will find relatively little of interest in this two-disc, deluxe reissue.

Is this what contemporary indie means, to be able to transition back and forth between a commoditized existence and an independently artistic one with relative ease? It may be.

Suddenly finding himself with a chart-topping album, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard finds himself concerned with more important things than popping open a bottle of bubbly. It's just another day in the fun, crazed universe of Death Cab.

A band as long-lasting as Death Cab would eventually have to regroup and launch their sound into a grittier, more primal direction, shaking off the stigma that comes with entering the Post-Millenial Platinum Club.

Death Cab for Cutie sideman/indie producer extraordinare finally releases his long-delayed solo album, capitalizing on a sound that wouldn't be out of place on a regular Death Cab album.

Music videos as a companion to CDs? It just might work...

The goodness of this film relates directly to the viewers' like or dislike of Death Cab for Cutie songs.

This is an amazing little pop record of amazing little pop songs.