Death Cab For Cutie

Album: Transatlanticism
Year: 2003

Like a few others of their Pacific Northwest contemporaries that started around the turn of the century — Modest Mouse, Long Winters, The Decemberists, etc — I missed the very early Death Cab For Cutie albums, not discovering them until they made an album that one way or another cut through the static.

In the case of Death Cab For Cutie, that album was Transatanticism, though how it came into my life, whether via the radio or album reviews or even on one of those TV shows aimed at millennials, I have no idea. I’m just glad it did, if for no other reason that the epic title track.

It has been four months since I’ve done one of these, a far cry from my original plan of doing one a month, and I can’t promise when the next one will be, or even if there will be a next one.

So, really quickly, the ground rules. These aren’t about artists, or albums, or even songs, but rather, moments: that piece of a song that draws you into it; that piece of a song that you wait to happen again; that piece of a song that is running in your head when you can’t sleep; that piece of a song that you find yourself humming at inopportune times.

That piece of a song that you can’t live without.

This is the ninth in a series: The first one had 25; the second one had 24; the third one had 23; the fourth one had 22; the fifth one had 21; and the sixth had 20; the seventh had 19 and the eighth had 18.

Certain Songs #291: Death Cab For Cutie – “Transatlanticism”

17 Musical Moments to Die For