Kintsugi

Death Cab for Cutie named their eighth studio album after a Japanese art movement in which broken ceramics are fused together again with precious metals. It’s a symbolic statement from a band at a crossroads: though <i> Kintsugi</i> is their last release with founding guitarist and longtime producer Chris Walla, its elegantly layered indie rock bears his considerable influence. Before blossoming into a quietly devastating break-up tune—frontman Ben Gibbard’s specialty— opener “No Room in Frame” starts with a hypnotic instrumental snippet that Walla weaves throughout. Both the breathtaking guitars of “Ingenue” and the elegiac beauty of “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life” showcase dynamics nearly twenty years in the making.