Make Up For The Breakup4 Out Of 5 Stars
"Was I in your way when the cameras turned to face you?" So asks Ben Gibbard, on what feels like a break-up album. He went through a tabloid-y divorce from actress-singer Zooey Deschanel and lost Death Cab Co-founder Chris Walla as the album was being recorded. That's a pretty big pair of voids to fill. Death Cab For Cutie's rise to that challenge is "Kintsugi," maybe their sparsest album yet. The title itself refers to the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, the repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. The literal definition of making up for the breaking up.
These potent messages abound on "Kitsugi," be it the new wave-ish "The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive" to the bare bones "You've Haunted Me All My Life." But for the most part, Gibbard sings above spare guitars and lightly brushed drums. Then he gulps down a line like “You’ll never have to hear the word ‘no’/If you keep all your friends on the payroll” and you can't help but wonder if the electro-pop of "Good Help (Is So Hard To Find)" is directed towards his actress ex. There's more ex-angst here than on a Taylor Swift album, and the album revels in it.
"Kintsugi" is a varied album stylistically, if not emotionally. It harkens back to "Transatlanticism" more than the chipper "Codes and Keys," Even with the despair and emotional disrepair, the album ends on one line of hope from "Binary Sea." "There's something brilliant about to happen here," Ben croons. It's a crack in his heart that he finds a way to repair, and signs "Kistsugi" off with a glimmer of goodness yet to come. It's smooth sailing, one hopes, and Death Cab finds a way to negotiate the twists and turns like masters. All breakups should be fodder for art this good.
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