Death Cab For Cutie’s new album Asphalt Meadows is out today. It’s my favorite new release by these guys in a long time, in part because it finds the band and producer John Congleton discovering powerful new extensions of the Death Cab sound all these years later. There are still a fair amount of down-the-middle DCFC tracks like the propulsive “Here To Forever,” but those are interspersed with moments of genuine transformation, from the surprisingly piercing and explosive “Roman Candles” and the contemplative spoken-word piece “Foxglove Through The Clearcut” (real Cassandra Jenkins vibes on that one).