“The Photo Album” foreshadowed key elements of Death Cab for Cutie’s next release, 2003’s “Transatlanticism,” and twenty years’ time has only thrown these parallels into sharper relief.
#Made in the am album cover deluxe edition full
The acoustic demo features more complex harmonies whose full tone sometimes vies for attention with the lyrics, showing how the band’s subsequent studio work helped put “Steadier Footing” on its feet. This synthesis of past and future signals a certain disregard for the present - a likely cause of the missed connection at hand. “And will we remember them in ten more?” he wonders. On album opener “Steadier Footing,” the austere backdrop of a lone guitar frames Gibbard’s equally pristine vocals as he recounts how the aftermath of a party brings “the chance I never got / To make a move.” Instead of taking that chance, Gibbard waxes nostalgic on “the people we’ve met in the last five years” as the accompaniment quickens. Far from alienating listeners, though, the distance in Gibbard’s delivery enables broader perspectives to grow from the album’s brief vignettes. Lead singer Ben Gibbard maintains a degree of melancholy detachment from his deeply personal lyrics, assuming the dual roles of photographer and subject. Like a loving restoration of a cherished photo collection, the reissue provides new insight into the creation of a Death Cab classic.
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The Seattle-based alt-rockers’ ability to distill streams of memory into precise and evocative images became clearer than ever with the 2001 release of their third LP, “The Photo Album.” To celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, the band shared a deluxe edition with previously unreleased material, such as acoustic versions and demos, on Oct. Sound is to Death Cab for Cutie as light is to photography: a medium that can somehow overcome its impermanence to preserve moments in time.