Chris Walla Goes Solo
Walla struggles to find a voice without his Death Cab comrades.
Chris Walla
Field Manual
Released on Nov 30, -0001
When a member of a band strikes out for a solo project, there exists an inevitable and perhaps unfair line of thinking: How does this compare to the band's work? In the case of Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and his debut solo effort Field Manual, the similarities are apparent. There's the weepy, somber guitar drenching the bridges and outros, the crisp production (done by the man himself) and the atmospheric sound of it all.
Heck, you could probably switch out Walla's singing - which we'll get to in a minute- with Death Cab front man Ben Gibbard on a track or two, throw it on the back half of Plans, and one might hardly notice the difference. This isn't to say the entire album is dripping with Death Cab - Walla does a fine job of defining his own sound and voice, most notably on "A Bird is a Song," "Our Plans, Collapsing" and "The Score" - but it's hard to deny some of the similarities. (And furthermore, it's a good thing these similarities exist. If he became consumed with not making the album sound anything like DCFC, we might have gotten something uninspired, and worse yet, fake.)
The vocals, however, are a serious drag on the album's intensity. On many songs, you're waiting for the burst of emotion, some passion ... something. But Walla never stretches himself; he keeps it safe, and therefore boring.
You keep waiting for the helium to fill up the whole balloon, but it's pretty clear something is wrong with the big silver canister. And it's perhaps why Death Cab works so well: Walla lays down the dulcet tones, and Gibbard knocks the vocals out of the park.
When does Narrow Stairs come out again?
High Point
Low Point
Posted by Ryan Corazza on Feb 01, 2008 @ 12:00 am