If You Feel Just like a Tourist in the City You Were Born Then it’s Time to Go

When John Mayer released his last album I panned it because nobody wants to hear a concept album about dating Jennifer Aniston. And a first listen to the new Death Cab for Cutie album Codes and Keys, one could make an argument about Zooey Deshanel, the quirky actress that lead singer Benjamin Gibbard married since the release of their last album Narrow Stairs. Gone are the stalkery songs and tales of woe which are replaced by positive songs and grand views of the future.

First single You Are a Tourist could very well be about Gibbard’s feelings about his previous moodier songs and may be the “villain in the story you have written.” And for a guy who made a song about a Twin Size Bed sound so depressing he turned around in short time to make a real peppy song about a different inanimate object on Portable Television. While Stay Young, Go Dancing is their most upbeat and hopeful song to date by far.

Lyrics are not the only drastic change for Codes and Keys as the band when for a decidable less guitar-based sound for the new album(save riff-tastic You Are a Tourist). With more focus on piano, keyboards, and drum beats, this album has a more electronic feel (though not as electronic as Gibbard’s side project The Postal Service) but still manages the warmth that some electronic acts lack. The only song missing the wall of sound of the rest of the album is Stay Young, Go Dancing which ends the album with an acoustic guitar and well placed strings.

But is hard to wonder if this would have been a better album if Ben never met Zooey. Here is hoping Ryan Adams’s eventual concept album about Mandy Moore bucks this trend.

Song to Download – Stay Young, Go Dancing

Codes and Keys gets a on my Terror Alert Scale. Note the $5.00 price in the Amazon widget below which is what the album will be priced at all this month.