With
Thank You for Today,
Ben Gibbard moves
Death Cab for Cutie into a new phase, one that reflects his newly minted middle age and one without
Chris Walla. It's a new beginning, but one that announces itself with a whisper.
Thank You for Today simmers in a fashion that's not unfamiliar to
Death Cab, but there's a definition to the composition and production of its ten songs that keeps the album far from the reaches of mood music. Make no mistake,
Thank You for Today still casts a specific spell -- one that's supple yet subtle, music that feels as cozy as a warm bath yet has a quiet urgency derived from
Gibbard taking stock of how the world has changed around him.
Gibbard doesn't shy away from all of the issues familiar to a modern American urbanite, musing about gentrification and loves old and new, all from a vantage point of somebody who is comfortable about where he's at but knows what's been lost. This results in an album where the melancholy is bittersweet, not all-consuming, which means
Thank You for Today is softly reassuring even when its intent is lightly barbed. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
![A A Deeper Understanding [Digipack]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0075678660634_p0_v2_s90x140.jpg "A A Deeper Understanding [Digipack]")
