One album we have known about for awhile, one we knew nothing of until about 4:00 EST today. Two terrific, prolific artists, two weird album titles. On March 31, Death Cab for Cutie will release Kintsugi, and Sufjan Stevens will release Carrie & Lowell. Both have the potential to be great.
Death Cab released much of the details about their new album last October when founding member Chris Walla left the band (thankfully after he contributed to the writing and recording of it). This Stereogum interview had a lot of revealing insight and got me very excited. But then the title and tracklisting weren't released until today through this Rolling Stone article, which also explains the Japanese title.
Death Cab for Cutie- Kintsugi
1. No Room in Frame
2. Black Sun
3. The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
4. Little Wanderer
5. You've Haunted Me All My Life
6. Hold No Guns
7. Everything's a Ceiling
8. Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)
9. El Dorado
10. Ingénue
11. Binary Sea
As far as Sufjan, I don't think anyone had a clue a new LP from him was on its' way, but that is the way he works. This email from Ashmatic Kitty record describes the album (at least to me) like a sequel to Seven Swans. And after the bombastic, electronic Age of Adz, this is exactly what I want to hear from him. The description from the email is perfect, and the 1 minute clip of one song is gorgeous:
These are aggressive times. Each morning we awaken to a psychic blitz of breaking news, social outrage, and millions of images and voices shrieking look at me and this onslaught does not cease until late at night when the last glowing screen fades to black. This world demands our attention with one hand and destroys it with the other. That such a noisy age can deliver an album as graceful and honest as Carrie & Lowell should reassure anyone losing faith these days. Let no one say philosophy is dead, for here is a 44-minute meditation on mortality, memory, and faith.
Each track in this collection of eleven songs begins with a fragile melody that gathers steam until it becomes nothing less than a modern hymn. Sufjan recounts the indignities of our world, of technological distraction and sad sex, of an age without either myth or miracle—and this time around, his voice carries the burden of wisdom. Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait. If youth knew, if age could.
1. Death With Dignity (3:59)
2. Should Have Known Better (5:07)
3. All Of Me Wants All Of You (3:41)
4. Drawn to the Blood (3:18)
5. Eugene (2:26)
6. Fourth of July (4:39)
7. The Only Thing (4:44)
8. Carrie & Lowell (3:14)
9. John My Beloved (5:04)
10. No Shade in the Shadow of The Cross (2:40)
11. Blue Bucket of Gold (4:43)
