There’s blood on the tracks on the eighth album from US indie outfit Death Cab For Cutie. Guitarist Chris Walla has departed, and the album’s primary lyrical focus is singer Ben Gibbard’s break-up with actress Zooey Deschanel (ironically, a singer in an emo group writing a record about the disintegration of his relationship in itself sounds like the plot of a Deschanel film).
Though the record deals with emotional pain and Death Cab hail from the same neck of the woods (Washington state) as Nirvana, Kintsugi – its name taken from a type of Japanese art which involves fixing broken pottery – is a long way from the bruising punk-pop assault of Nevermind. Instead, the band specialise in a slightly generic brand of alt.rock, which is undeniably well executed but could do with a dash of both irony and melodic inspiration.
When it works, as on the epic ‘No Room In Frame’, Kintsugi is excellent, with Death Cab drawing on the best elements of U2 and Arcade Fire to create exhilarating arena rock. At its worst – as exemplified by the dreary likes of ‘You’ve Haunted Me All My Life’ and ‘Little Wanderer’ – the band come across like a nightmarish combo of Coldplay and the sort of dour indie (Modest Mouse, The Shins) that US audiences appear to have an unfortunate soft spot for.
Nicely crafted and brimming with passion, Kintsugi is what might be termerd a mixed blessing.

Key Track - 'No Room In Frame'