Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism (2LP, 10th anniversary edition) [BARSUK]

Why you'll love it

This 10th anniversary edition spreads the album over two 180g discs in a gatefold jacket, with a 12-page booklet and a download of the album plus demos. Transatlanticism was the band's first album on the Billboard 200, and NPR Music named it one of the 50 most important recordings of the 2000s.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 10th anniversary edition
• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• 12-page booklet with lyrics
• Download of album and demos

About the album

Chris Walla produced Transatlanticism entirely on analog tape, recording between December 2002 and June 2003 at the Hall of Justice in Seattle and Tiny Telephone in San Francisco. It was the band's fourth album, and Barsuk put it out that October. On the US Independent Albums chart it peaked at No. 8.

Ben Gibbard's songs are full of distance and longing, and the band gives them room. "The New Year" crashes in, "Title And Registration" turns a glovebox into a short story, and "The Sound of Settling" is the bounciest thing they'd recorded. The title track builds for nearly eight minutes, "Passenger Seat" is just piano and voice, and "Expo '86," "We Looked Like Giants" and "A Lack Of Color" close it out with Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr anchoring Walla's guitars.

Plans, their major-label debut, followed in 2005. "A Lack Of Color" turned up on The O.C., and the band later played "Title And Registration" and "The Sound of Settling" at the show's fictional club. Not many indie bands play a made-up venue on a teen drama and come out cooler for it; this lot managed.

Also at Kops: more Death Cab for Cutie on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Barsuk (cat# BARK32LP), a reissue of the 2003 album.