(single/ FIERCE PANDA)
This is a truly beautiful song and, for me, the soundtrack to the summer. It's incredible that just one song can sometimes have a profound impact on the listener's life, with this perfect pop-rock anthem simply being one of the loveliest marriages of melody and lyric that I've heard in a very long while.
Death Cab For Cutie (or DCFC for short) hail from Seattle and have been lucky enough to have been personally invited by Blink 182 to support them on their Autumn tour later this year.
DCFC, in their own right, don't really embrace any punk ethics in their music as Blink tend to. The Death Cab quartet can always be relied upon to write thrillingly sublime pop-rock songs, with 'The Sound of Settling' being gorgeously melodic to a T. And the accompanying, soulfully sung by Ben Gibbard lyric is equally as captivating: 'I've got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots� If you've got an impulse, let it out.'
Taken from their 'Transatlanticism' album, this is only the second single that these guys have released this year, with their irresistible pop sensibility being joyously shot through with the style and substance oozed by bands such as The Dandy Warhols and Weezer.
So look out and listen up, for this 'Sound of Settling' is sensational. 5/5 (Steve Rudd)
Release Date: August 23rd 2004.