Put to the test.

More than three years have passed already it all up, the indie rockers from Bellingham with her ambivalent 'Narrow Stairs' sonicated international halls. Critics complained of a too smooth ironed production, the tendency to college Kitsch music and partial lack of imagination, yet the album brought the boys from 'Death Cab' Gold status, two Grammy nominations and # 1 on the Billboard charts.
But both the band and the fans now longed to be for change and new freshness.
The market of indie music makes it one today really not easy. Bands like 'Arcade Fire', 'Elbow' or 'Mumford & Sons' with its intelligent fusion of rock and folk care in recent years for exponentially increasing commercial success of the genre, conquer the big stages and so bring some musicians really falter , 'Arcade Fire' translated this year the biggest exclamation of indie music, as they for 'The Suburbs' the Grammy for 'Best Album Of The Year' received and are already traded in professional circles as a potential successor to U2. Is indie music there still indie, or long the new mainstream form of rock? Hard to say. But even if it is so, it is clear that it would not do bad for the musical zeitgeist with it. On the contrary: The musical economy, in which we find ourselves and in which we daily with always head looser - we call it for the sake of clarity times - music can be filled up, is counteracted with the sudden urge to claim, great songwriting, powerful instrumentation and profound life stories , There is the chance that was given to the indie rock. And its artists will now put to the test - as well as Death Cab For Cutie. With 'Transatlanticism' they brought a fundamental, indispensable; upswing in indie rock. Melancholy, fragility and resulting subliminal positivism are the strengths that made the quartet so unique and world famous. With 'Narrow Stairs' these ingredients seemed to have been laid something aside. And with the new 'Codes & Keys' would be a continuation of the last plate or a tribute to 'Transatlanticism' insufficient. Death Cab For Cutie have again for untouched terrain - forced - decided. Frontman Ben Gibbard betrayed in zuvorigen interviews that it would no guitar-heavy album; you've been experimenting a lot with old piano sounds and synthesizers from the 60s. And that is also confirmed after the first hearing impression. Piano hooks, soundscapes, synth loops and ambience drumming form the aura of 11 songs. Snotty garage guitars, as we know from the songs 'Cath ...' or 'We Looked Like Giants', see 'Codes And Keys' virtually no space. Guitarist and producer Chris Walla, however, focuses on often-like Dredg Delay Reverb foundation and thus divides the stringed instrument markedly subordinate role. Also drummer Jason McGerr adheres to new methodologies. That the drumming of Death Cab For Cutie always provided a completion of the guitar and vocal dynamics, is known. On 'Codes And Keys' are often merely just single cymbal crashes, short triplet drum roll and mechanically acting on simplicity unsurpassed rhythms that make up the percussive part. But the simplicity paired with a sensitive, sentimental mood is what makes this band ultimately always large. The motivation solely to play in favor of the song, its great art. This idea is also reflected in 'Codes And Keys' again and is perhaps the common thread that runs through the entire discography of Americans.
But this time it is not the (often criticized) melancholy that sets the tone, but it's the experimentation of different sound spectra, revive the 'Codes & Keys'. The opening track 'Home Is A Fire' proves bravorös from the first second. A gentle, almost jazzy drums accompanied by a sparkling, nervous piano bass loop form a rhythm segment, which makes a part of Gibbards electronic side project 'The Postal Service' remember. The change of major and minor scale type, the tremulous guitars and vocals remotely creating an amazing openness and transparency. And at the latest in each bewitching Refrain it soon becomes clear to what memorable moments this band is capable of. Completely restrained, but at the same experimental than ever before and that he is unlike any other album opener the perfect introduction. In the title song you won support of an orchestra and creates a self-confident, but then something plänkelnden contrast. The four songs are the highlight of the disc. Where 'Handsome Boys' still voice with the line 'Some boys are filling the hole' with its catchy shuffle rhythm and Gibbards just as optimism radiates, makes itself in 'Doors Unlocked And Open' sudden discomfort wide. It is the finesse and the hypnosierende rhythm, which already 'I will possess your heart' excelled. 'Isolation - dotted lines. Cold discomfort - safety glass' are the words of a man who rack their brains over the place of lonely people in society. It follows the first single 'You Are A Tourist', which makes up the crown jewel of the album with its catchiest guitar hook this year, the perfect interplay of drums and bass and the concentrated songwriting perfection of melody, dynamics and expressiveness.
The then dreamy ballad 'Unobstructed Views', which is held with its versatile keyboard sounds in cotton and thereby gaining unique authentic expression remains only to say one thing: 'There's no eye in the sky, just our love.'
It is a syndrome of empathy, honesty, intimidation and self-confidence at the same impeccable, which makes strong the music of Death Cab. Where the first half of the album still indispensable lächzt by this symbiosis, predominates in the second defensiveness and shyness. The songs seem closed but lose expressiveness. 'Monday Morning' and 'Stay Young, Go Dancing' come therefore nice, but suffer from a lack of depth. Harmonically and melodically it to act calculated. It feels almost as that Death Cab so that the Daring, Experimental balance of the first songs trying to get back to achieve a better balance. But to which one would not have to worry because it was lacking so far at any Death Cab album. As a result, the album is partly self-defeating, because it is afraid for his own. But that seems to be completely unjustified, because the timing of the trip has been Gibbard quake in the first song: '. Nothing's the same as yesterday' It goes into the unknown - with musicians who have an overwhelming sense of finesse, song structures and musical emotionality without any kitsch.
And that also includes 'Codes And Keys' - the songwriting acts of self-contained and more dense than its predecessor. The tiefschichtige, perfect in itself coherent instrumentation and subtle psychedelic drive to help a brilliant momentum. And if it were not always those moments that reveal the soul of every so damn .....
It is an evolution of a band that was put to the test, and they successfully - although not perfect - mastered. But when individuality and charisma determine an album, then the decisive and important than anything else. Above all, it is what the indie rock can be getting bigger.

Codes And Keys: 7/10

Home Is A Fire: 7/10
Codes And Keys: 6/10
Some Boys: 7/10
Doors Unlocked And Open: 8/10
You Are A Tourist: 9/10
Unobstructed Views: 8/10
Monday Morning: 6/10
Portable Television: 6/10
Underneath The Sycamore: 6/10
St. Peter's Cathedral: 7/10
Stay Young, Go Dancing: 6/10