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Sep 16, 2022Kicking off their third decade post-Barsuk, Death Cab continue their evolution in fascinating and rewarding ways, somehow managing to surprise with fresh directions and sounds yet unheard from this ever-reliable crew.
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Sep 19, 2022Overall, Asphalt Meadows is a fine record from a band so deep into their career they really have nothing left to prove — except, it seems, to themselves.
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Sep 14, 2022‘Asphalt Meadows’ may not be a lockdown record, but it’s one that finds its voice in emerging into musical freedoms found in separation.
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Sep 15, 2022They've managed to create an album that feels fresh while also being the closest they've come to recreating the magic of earlier records. This is a band that has finally found a way to evolve without eliminating what it was that made them so special in the first place.
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MojoSep 12, 2022The stories collected on Death Cab For Cutie's tenth album are rich in both detail and substance, with solidary lines that can unravel you. [Oct 2022, p.82]
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Sep 19, 2022It’s simply another good collection of melancholic indie-rock – and sometimes, that comfort in familiarity is just what you need.
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Sep 12, 2022‘Asphalt Meadows’ is as assured and stately as you’d expect and hope for from indie veterans now 10 albums and 25 years into their career, but this beaut is as consistent and satisfying as their early-mid ‘00s career peak.
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Sep 16, 2022Death Cab for Cutie underscore their range and numerous eras on Asphalt Meadows. Uniting the past and the present, it’s the perfect mnemonic for this band’s legacy.
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Sep 21, 2022The introductory duo of “I Don’t Know How I Survive” and “Roman Candles” position Asphalt Meadows as a clean break from the slick competence of Kintsugi and Thank You for Today. ... A record that mostly satisfies through course correction.
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Sep 19, 2022Asphalt Meadows is neither a nostalgic rehash of earlier heights nor a workmanlike product lacking innovation or novelty. It is instead a statement that this band can both occupy space in the indie rock pantheon while at the same time producing new work deserving of consideration with some of their finest early work.
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Sep 21, 2022Asphalt Meadows not only lives up to but truly, actually fulfils the promise of Death Cab for Cutie – of music not always new, or unique, or 'experimental', but always, always genuine, and always, always packed with meaning and emotion.
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Sep 15, 2022Asphalt Meadows acquits itself well. It’s there within the measured tread and stark atmospherics of "Peppers", or the twinkling sun goes down gorgeousness of “Fragments from the Decade” where loose limbed almost jazzy drums shuffle off into the distance, of course your mileage may vary according to your own particular emotional pressure points.
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Sep 12, 2022Characteristically textbook Death Cab – dolloping shimmering guitars atop stomping percussion, as decadent choruses burst through nostalgic lyricism like an uncontainable smile. Their knack for spry, melancholic indie-rock remains unrivalled and makes for yet another memorable release.
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Sep 16, 2022Death Cab are back with a bang and a new-found self-assurance.
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UncutSep 12, 2022Gibbard's freighted eloquence gives Asphalt Meadows its unsettling immediacy. [Oct 2022, p.26]
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Sep 16, 2022An undeniable triumph, Asphalt Meadows is likely to gain the group new listeners, as well as thrill old fans.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 29
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Mixed: 0 out of 29
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Negative: 1 out of 29
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Sep 18, 2022
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Sep 17, 2022Excellent album. I thought everyone was way too hard on TYFT but this is a step up from that. Their best since Narrow Stairs.
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Sep 17, 2022Realmente un álbum bastante fresco que al mismo tiempo nos remite a su pasado en los 90 pero con la madurez de la década de los 2010.