Death Cab For Cutie Succeeds In Flying Close To The Sun

"Black Sun" probes your gray matter in a very consistent fashion. You'd have a point in thinking that listening to Death Cab For Cutie's new single can be compared to watching a gun shy flower open up steadily, revealing bold colors as the seconds elapse. It's been four years since "Codes and Keys" dispersed alt rock's lethargy spaces. On tap for late March release we get "Kintsugi". Another one of Obama's teachable moments has surfaced. I do try to educate where I can. As much as I value entertainment, education deserves credit too. Kintsugi comes to us from The Land of The Rising Sun. It entails fixing broken pottery with lacquer. "Black Sun" contains a lot of imagery revolving around psychological scarring. You and I get to go under Death Cab For Cutie's microscope to analyze just how broken the broken places really are. The crash site we amble past proves too great a sideshow to ignore like we hallucinated such carnage. A commonality among humans rests with the fight to avoid boredom. Death Cab's choices of what band flourishes go where elevates "Black Sun" to something much greater than, say, a filler track that today's audiences, thanks to the ability to load only the tracks they want can opt out of completely. You'd be shifting quality time in the right direction by paying close attention to how the demeanor changing from one lyrical passage to the next. For starters Benjamin Gibbard's guitar sounds commendably worn down. The heavy load he's carrying has threatened to drop him to his knees for good. Jason McGerr's thumping drum beats serve to reinforce the wobbly legs Ben sings on. As Ben asks "How could something so fair be so cruel when this black sun revolves around you?" his guitar submerges itself beneath the undertow. In its place sinister keyboards hold us at somewhat terrified attention. You and I have likely had our share of moments, probably lamentable ones, where time seemed to move in slo-mo. That juncture in "Black Sun" has slow motion tragedy written all over it. No sooner has the blackness descended than we're back to the guitar drum mesh work. Be careful though. The third instance where Ben returns to his dejected worldview, the band changes up their instrumental approach. We infer blackness has stepped aside to allow clarity to peek in, thus contributing some sunshine. Death Cab For Cutie brings every Farenheit degree to full effect on "Black Sun" You should apply SPF No. You Be The Judge at your own risk. This outing doesn't gallop away before we can glean meaning from it. On the other hand, it doesn't crawl at a snail's pace. I believe we come closer to snail than thoroughbred steed but this patient has life yet in its veins. The action slows enough to allow us to size up whether or not all parties to this ongoing crash have emerged with contained scar tissue. My mother has had a long career as an ACC Psychology teacher. She agrees with me that people are an interesting character study. "Black Sun" never stops fascinating. As was the case for the video for "You Are a Tourist" the video for "Black Sun" has top-notch production values pushing wind at its back. A crash scene on steady loop goes over great in tandem with a serious song like this. "Black Sun" won't burn out or fade away. It mainly lingers in the psyche, an itch you'd better scratch before you're consumed with the urge to rip your flesh off.