Death Cab for Cutie's 6 favorite instrumental songs

Bassist Nick Harmer recommends ambient tracks from Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins, and more

Death Cab for Cutie
(Image credit: (Atlantic Records))

For more than 15 years, Death Cab for Cutie has made music that's unapologetically emotional. But what happens when a band whose entire identity is wrapped up in chronicling the angst of adolescence and early adulthood accepts that it has come of age?

Death Cab for Cutie's maturation has come with its own speed bumps. The band's past few years have been marred by very adult breakups both personal (frontman Ben Gibbard divorced wife Zooey Deschanel in 2012) and professional (Chris Walla, the band's instrumentalist and longtime producer, parted ways with the group last year). And now, Death Cab's first album as a trio, Kintsugi, named for the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by filling in its cracks with precious metals, suggests that the band is ready to rebuild.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Samantha Rollins

Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.