Let us set out on an imaginary, ethereal, and biodiverse road trip by only headphones, courtesy of Death Cab for Cutie’s most recent album, Asphalt Meadows, released on September 16, 2022. The established indie rock band, notable for their soul-cleansing storytelling and emotive guitar and piano motifs, puts forth the selective forty-two-minute long product of what they described as “an exciting writing exercise” and much more.

I am a firm believer in listening to an album from start to finish in the very first listen. In doing so, I was able to appreciate the different “chapters” of the story that Death Cab for Cutie shares with fans, and I shaped a vision in my mind of the main themes of the album.

Although the members of Death Cab for Cutie formed their band in Seattle, Washington, this album personally speaks to me as a lifelong resident of the vicinity of Los Angeles, California: the land of dreams for some, and desolation for others. Around this area, one may travel to many environments such as the beach, desert, canyons, forests, and even areas with snow. In my listening experience of Asphalt Meadows, I imagined the feeling of leaving this area I know so well, and the feeling of trying to find myself in different environments, both social and ecological.

For the sake of this writing, I will imagine two protagonists: you and I. We will travel through the environments, roads and tracks of the album, meeting various characters and living within the story that Asphalt Meadows tells.

The unconventional and technically provocative opening track, “I Don’t Know How I Survive,” features a peppy, repeating guitar riff underneath unsettled, pleading phrases, invoking the desire to run away and find change. And so, our metaphorical car door slams, and the engine revs, synchronized with just four measures of explosive, distorted guitar before continuing into the evermore layered melody, the steady grip of the road to be traveled.

The following track, “Roman Candles,” represents my patience in a premature breakdown on the side of the road. While the lyrics could surely be stretched to represent such a malfunction, what I mean is that this track is my least favorite on the album. Unfortunately, this was released as a single, which gave me apprehension about the release of the complete album. This track’s repetitive similes and “ah-ooh’s” of the chorus means that I never find myself returning to this song, as I feel it is not very characteristic of their usual spectacular work. Thankfully, in only two minutes and ten seconds, we are on our way once again.

“Asphalt Meadows” is the next highway sign we come across. The title track calmly leads us back into visual themes of travel and infrastructure and finding order within the chaos. The main theme of the album is appropriately found here, within the lines that tell, “Here in the asphalt meadows, there’s only one thing that grows. Finding the light through the concrete, getting trampled under our feet.” An artful, reluctantly-resolved melody once again gives the feeling that this should be the anthem of a character fending off a longtime fear of running away, and finally doing so during the chorus. 

Our protagonists finally arrive at the edge of the city in “Rand McNally.” A familiar Death Cab characteristic riff, layered in both octaves and instruments, leads us up to the hilltop on which the album art’s shrouded figures stand. I imagine them taking a final look at their city before consulting their “Rand McNally atlas, cheap coffee-stained.” This particular track, my second favorite on the album, is much deeper, lyrically, than those we’ve encountered before. It seems to call on memories of a vagabond character, solo in the first verse and companion in the second. The repeating phrase “I won’t let the light fade,” coupled with dreamlike piano triplets, gives the sense of necessary hope in the face of despair. 

Turning the page to “Here to Forever” introduces us to a significantly more upbeat feel in rhythmic drums and guitar strums which I can only describe as similar to the visual pattern of a sedimentary rock face. The band takes us through a sort of desert canyon which along the way brings up a test of religious faith, the “pressure of God, or whatever,” and a tendency to “keep falling in love with bones and ashes.” A chapter of self-exploration is ironically one of the most upbeat tracks on the album, perhaps to prevent you from falling too deep into your thoughts while in this arid environment with no rest stops. This is another one of my favorite songs, released as a single in July of 2022, reminding me of one of my favorite times in my life. It is instrumentally diverse and has lovely layering, dynamic through the last seconds of the song.

We somehow take a surprising turn to find ourselves facing “Foxglove Through The Clearcut.” I’m not sure how we got to this unexpected place, but it sure is stunning here. Foxglove is a magnificent purple or pink flower, and at this moment, it stands tall, making itself visible amongst the clearcut, which refers to an area that has been deforested. While observing this, an adventurous and wise male character in this song provides one of the most mindful scenes on the album, in the form of spoken word poetry interspersed with both plucked and wailing guitar moments. He tells us that he “used to live by the ocean, but he never set foot in the sea,” due to his fears. We sit with him as he tells us his thoughts on entropy and lack of moral accountability on the environment. At the end of the song, which feels like sunset, he leaves us, “reaching for the sky.” This track is magnificent in that it is unique in its storytelling and visually pleasing.

In “Pepper,” we first “take a picture to remember this by,” and continue on our way. To me, this song syncs up with nightfall, as there is hardly any mention of the physical environment like in the other tracks. There is nothing to be seen outside, but it is rather introspective, focusing on feelings of love and love lost. It features some of my favorite instrumental elements: the slippery synth, the balanced, percussion-feeling bass guitar riff, and the layering of guitar and piano. This song is a literal dream, it is my favorite on the album. As we find rest in this song, we meet “Sgt. Pepper with the faces of friends, but the names all elude you in the end.” This is a reference to The Beatles’ 1967 song, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and Death Cab for Cutie could be using this to refer to the heartbreak that comes from forgetting a lover.

Reminiscing on those themes, the next track is “I Miss Strangers,” which takes us into that time when we wish we had more convenient means of communicating with one another. The energetic yet frantic guitar riffs conjure an image of searching for someone you know has disconnected from your life. Referencing a video game, Punk Wars, in which civilization has fallen, means that, on the road, we are traveling through the world of Asphalt Meadows, we have come across a region of disorder or abandonment. Maybe these are late-night hallucinations while out on the road, but either way, this song gives me the feeling that we have passed through into a new realm. The feel of this song is very unsettled, making me feel like I have circled back to the place of uneasy feelings toward the beginning of this album, in “Roman Candles” and the title track. It is a song well put together, but I was prevented from enjoying it thoroughly because I feel that it is rather displaced within the album, and interrupts the flow from chaos, to calmness, to regularity. Perhaps that was the point of this placement.

A new awakening comes forth in “Wheat like Waves,” and whether we made it to Canada or not, we meet a character who makes us feel that we are there. This song is perhaps the calmest and most stable on the album, again employing themes of travel and detailed storytelling of one particular character. I feel that this song might speak more significantly to someone older who has lived a life full of changes and experiences. The environmental elements include freezing snowfall in Saskatchewan, to which Death Cab for Cutie’s frontman, Ben Gibbard, sings, “there’s no way I’d survive.” The song itself is not too instrumentally notable, with acoustic aspects serving as background to the storytelling of this song.

“Fragments from the Decade,” tells of a place we stop to observe. Perhaps this is nearby Seattle, Washington, where Death Cab for Cutie originated, so this could be telling the somber story of someone they know quite well. I think it was quite an interesting decision to arrange this track as the second to last song rather than the closing track because it has a drifting, abstract feel to it, in which we are content with being lost, while “Walking in place where we don’t belong.”

Rather, the final track on the album is “I’ll Never Give Up On You,” an upbeat, confident tune with a heavy repeating phrase, the title. It is much similar to their song “Gold Rush” from Thank You For Today (2018). I’d like to think of this song as a decision to not end the long journey here, as there are still so many miles to go. The album could have concluded with the previous track, perfect for fading out, but this song has the feel of an encore or a hint toward more to come.

Looking at Death Cab for Cutie’s extensive discography, including ten studio albums, five EPs, and more, it is safe to say that they will be continuing on their journey of producing music that appeases longtime fans and newcomers alike. This album was a crisp and mindful collaboration of the band members coming together and figuring out how to incorporate elements from their albums across different decades.

The title of this memorable album, Asphalt Meadows, alludes to the notion of finding your treasures in the asphalt, whether it be the same asphalt you’ve run or driven over your entire life, or within the new streets, you may find. 

Overall rating: 4 / 5 stars

Article by Gisele Ortega