Codes and Keys
Codes and Keys | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 31, 2011 | |||
Recorded | 2010 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 45:04 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Chris Walla | |||
Death Cab for Cutie chronology | ||||
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Singles from Codes and Keys | ||||
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Codes and Keys is the seventh studio album by
Recording and production
Influenced by the album,
During its recording, Gibbard stated: "It's not a guitar-based record. We've been into vintage keyboards and playing with that palette. We're not adding guitars because people will be expecting them. I'm so proud of this album that at this point I don't care if people don't like it."[8] Guitarist and producer Chris Walla elaborated further, "We're thirteen or fourteen years, and seven or eight albums – depending how you count – into this, and it just seemed like a good time to not make a really guitar-centric, guitar-focused record."[9] Walla later stated: "guitar is great; it's a really immediate, impulsive sort of instrument. But I think if we had strapped on guitars and gone into the studio with the intent of making a sort of live-ish sounding record, we definitely would've retreaded some of the territory that we were in for Narrow Stairs. None of us really wanted to do that, but it took us a little while to figure out how to do it differently; how to find something that would work."[10]
Walla's production was influenced by Dazzle Ships by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem, New Order and the David Bowie album, Low, with Walla noting, "They really lean on a particularly technological bent. I wanted to do that. I wanted less photograph, more impressionism."[11] Walla elaborated, "[Codes and Keys] was an exercise in using an entirely different tool set. [...] the whole record ended up being this big experiment, which was really exciting. [...] We were really happy with Narrow Stairs, but we could make a record like that in our sleep. It's just so second-nature and so simple. I still think there's a lot more to explore [in] the way we made this record. And I think we'll probably continue on a similar trajectory and see where we end up on the next album."[11]
The album was mixed by Alan Moulder, with Walla noting: "I've mixed [all of the band's previous albums] except for this one. I'd been toying with it for a couple of records now. [...] It was really just a matter of trying to find the right person for this, to mix a Death Cab record, and Alan was my first choice. I was thrilled that he was able to do it. I'd been a huge fan of his for years and years so it was super exciting to get to work with him. He's kind of one of my heroes, he's made a bunch of my favorite records, so it was awesome."[10]
Writing and composition
Lyricist
With Codes and Keys, the experimental side of the band was drawn out more through production than a set songwriting process.
According to Gibbard, guitarist and producer Chris Walla's writing contributions were key during the album's writing and recording: "There are a few songs that Chris wrote all the music for. I cut and pasted and wrote lyrics and arrangements for them. This is the first time that we've had multiple compositions that started with Chris's demos and not mine, which is exciting."[8] Gibbard continued to praise Walla's contributions, stating: "I'm down with Chris screwing around with what he wants to do. He's yet to lead us down the wrong path. I think we're constantly trying to reinvent the band without losing sight of who we are. I don't feel like we went all Kid A on everyone. But there are moments on this record where we looked at each other and said, 'Oh, man, fans of The Photo Album (2001) are going to wonder what's going on here.'"[14]
Walla commented on writing contributions, stating: "If I'm starting something from the ground up, either I've got a melody in my head or I've got a feeling that I'm chasing. It'll be something impressionistic; it'll be like trying to take a feeling or something that's happening environmentally and trying to bottle that and turn it into a piece of music. Both the things that I started as instrumentals for this record were written largely out of a place of procrastination. I think I was supposed to be mixing someone else's record, or something, but I had some idea that I couldn't get out of my head and I just needed to crash through it."[10]
Reception
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 71/100[15] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Entertainment Weekly | A[16] |
The Guardian | [17] |
NME | 7/10[18] |
Pitchfork | 5.0/10[19] |
PopMatters | 4/10[20] |
Rolling Stone | [21] |
Spin | 8/10[22] |
Slant Magazine | [23] |
USA Today | [24] |
Codes and Keys has received generally positive reviews. On the review aggregate site Metacritic, the album has a score of 71 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15] Entertainment Weekly's Kyle Anderson gave the album a very positive review, writing "It's a reminder to the rest of the pretty-rock community that loveliness is worthless if there's no heart behind it, and Death Cab's beats stronger than most."[16] Jon Pareles of The New York Times also gave the album a positive review, calling Codes and Keys a better album than the band's previous album Narrow Stairs. Pareles concluded his review with: "This album doesn't try to rejuvenate Death Cab for Cutie by reverting to the sound the band had in the late 1990s. Now, it's a band of grown-ups still eager to evolve."[25] BBC Music's Ian Winwood called the album "an understated and subtly magnificent pleasure."[26] Even more reviews are positive: AbsolutePunk gave it a score of 95%, saying, "As the record comes to a close, it's impossible not to note the true creativity exerted throughout the entirety of Codes and Keys."[27] Paste gave it a score of 8.3 out of ten and said that "If Codes and Keys started at track 7 and kept the momentum going, it could be a great record. Instead it's a good one with great moments from a band that's clearly getting better with age."[28] Billboard gave it a favorable review and stated, "Past Death Cab albums have found frontman Ben Gibbard penning youthful lyrics about the wariness and mystery of love, but now, the singer -- who recently married actress/musician Zooey Deschanel -- seems to finally be at peace with his strange, wonderful self."[29]
The A.V. Club gave it a B and said, "Longtime Death Cab fans may chafe at the record's brighter moments, but it's a more rewarding experience than the band's previous stab at a "pop" record, 2005's Plans."[35] Chicago Tribune gave it three stars out of five and said that the album "pulses with the sound of tires on pavement, life blurring past a bus window on the road."[36] The Independent's Sunday Edition gave it a positive review and called it "the closest thing yet to a follow-up to Give Up by Gibbard's other concern, the Postal Service, although it's more about pretty pianos than effervescent synths."[37] The Boston Globe gave it a positive review and said that "there's little guitar to speak of, resulting in a more docile affair, even by the band's already mellow standards."[38] Under the Radar gave it a score of seven stars out of ten and said that "one listen ... reveals a band conscious as ever of the power of the studio."[39] Beats Per Minute gave it a score of 66% and stated, "The end result is an unfortunate fact that while Death Cab For Cutie seems as capable as ever at expressing themselves, they are running out of things to say. Or, at least, things worth hearing."[40] Los Angeles Times gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four and said that "Gibbard's picked up a bit of L.A.'s sun-scarred optimism and a droll domestic satisfaction that's alternately smug and insightful."[41]
Other reviews are very average or mixed: Sputnikmusic gave the album a score of three out of five, stating that "Until Gibbard can harness this newfound happiness with the kind of lyrical flair his fans are used to, Death Cab remain in danger of being, well, just another indie band."
Larry Fitzmaurice of
Legacy
Gibbard has since looked back at Codes and Keys with divided feelings. In a piece for Vice titled "Rank Your Records", he placed Codes and Keys lowest. He remembered that during the album's production he had moved to Los Angeles, which was far from his home of Seattle. "Because of the company I was keeping in Los Angeles, I was becoming very closed off, personally," he said. "I found myself not wanting to share as much of myself that I had historically shared on records." He also noted that he had switched from Fender Bullets to Fender G&Ls—a guitar he deemed "wonderful" but one he felt had too wide a neck for him to play comfortably.[48] When asked in another interview what songs he would be uninterested in performing again, he remarked, "Yeah, pretty much all of Codes and Keys!"[49] During a live performance from home in 2020, Gibbard reiterated he felt 'detached' from his Seattle-based community while living in Los Angeles, but stated there were songs on the record he thought were 'really good' and that he maybe unfairly associated the record with that period of time.[50]
Ed Power of
Track listing
All tracks are written by Ben Gibbard, except "Home Is a Fire", "Unobstructed Views" and "Underneath the Sycamore" composed by Gibbard and Chris Walla
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Home Is a Fire" | 4:04 |
2. | "Codes and Keys" | 3:22 |
3. | "Some Boys" | 3:11 |
4. | "Doors Unlocked and Open" | 5:37 |
5. | "You Are a Tourist" | 4:47 |
6. | "Unobstructed Views" | 6:11 |
7. | "Monday Morning" | 4:19 |
8. | "Portable Television" | 2:53 |
9. | "Underneath the Sycamore" | 3:27 |
10. | "St. Peter's Cathedral" | 4:30 |
11. | "Stay Young, Go Dancing" | 2:50 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
12. | "Portable Television" (demo version) | 2:55 |
13. | "Some Boys" (demo version) | 3:25 |
14. | "You Are a Tourist" (music video) | 5:06 |
Personnel
The following people contributed to Codes and Keys:[56]
Death Cab for Cutie
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Additional musicians
Artwork
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Recording
- Chris Walla – producer, recording, mixing ("Home is a Fire", "Codes and Keys")
- Beau Sorenson – recording, mixing ("Codes and Keys")
- Alan Moulder – mixing
- Roger Siebel – mastering
- Sean Oakley – recording assistant (Sound City)
- Dave "Squirrel" Covell – recording assistant (Sound City)
- Sally Pickett – recording assistant (Sound City)
- Mark Richards – recording assistant (Sound City)
- Adam Greenholtz – recording assistant (The Warehouse)
- Ryan Enockson – recording assistant (The Warehouse)
- Stephen Hogan – recording assistant (London Bridge)
- Jackson Long – recording assistant (Two Sticks Audio)
- John Vanderslice – recording assistant (Tiny Telephone)
- Jay Pellicci – recording assistant (Tiny Telephone)
- Pierre de Reeder – recording assistant (Bright Street Recorders)
- Kendra Lynn – recording assistant (Jackpot! Recording)
- Stuart Hallerman – recording assistant (Avast Recording)
- Johnny Mendoza – recording assistant (Avast Recording)
- Cathy Ferrante – recording assistant (Avast Recording)
- Catherine Marks – mixing assistant
- John Catlin – mixing assistant
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Singles
Year | Song | Peak positions | ||||||||||
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US Alt
[76] |
US Rock
[76] | |||||||||||
2011 | "You Are a Tourist" | 1 | 3 | |||||||||
2011 | "Home Is a Fire" | — | — | |||||||||
2011 | "Stay Young, Go Dancing" | 32 | 43 | |||||||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart. |
References
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