“Taken in parts, songs off Transatlanticism are solid tracks from a quality band, soft and pretty melodies that could easily be overlooked within the band’s discography. But when put together, the album is an experience. It radiates an aura of dreaminess. And 10 years later, it remains as important an album for the band as its more popular works.” —Kelsey Hughes
If you ever find yourself on a long drive in the dead of night, put on Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism. Everything on the album — from its themes to its track order to its name — makes it perfect for a late night road trip, especially for the lone traveler with plenty to think about.
The album, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, is often disregarded as a choice for favorite album by fans of indie rock celebrities. It deserves recognition not for each of its songs but for the way it makes you feel — as if you’re in a dream.
It doesn’t take very long while listening to “The New Year” to fall into a otherworldly stupor that permeates the rest of the 11 tracks that make up the album. Though loud and fast-paced, the song retains an eerie quality with lead singer Ben Gibbard’s echoey vocals over vibrating chords. The song decrescendos right into the next one with the kind of seamless transition that makes the entire work feel like a progression, each song pushing you softly along in the experience of the album. During certain songs, such as “Expo ’86,” you can almost see yourself in the car on the freeway hurtling through tunnels and vast starry expanses, as if in a movie.
Transatlanticism is quiet and unassuming, but it also includes songs of a higher intensity, such as “The Sound of Settling,” that momentarily wake you from your reverie before settling back into the subtle and melodic “Tiny Vessels” and the album’s title track. “The Sound of Settling” is so different from the rest of the album, with its poppy drumbeat and cheery “ba-ba”s, that it almost doesn’t fit on the album. Yet it has managed to become one of the band’s greatest hits.
Arguably the best song on the album, “We Looked Like Giants” is a reminiscent piece about being in a long-distance college relationship and traveling to be together to “learn how [their] bodies work.” It provides the ultimate crescendo of the album before settling quietly into the last song, “A Lack of Color.”
Taken in parts, songs off Transatlanticism are solid tracks from a quality band, soft and pretty melodies that could easily be overlooked within the band’s discography. But when put together, the album is an experience. It radiates an aura of dreaminess. And 10 years later, it remains as important an album for the band as its more popular works.
