Death Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower (2026)

Best tracks: Punching the Flowers / Trap Door

Tender, deep, quiet, emotional, loud, intimate, riff-driven... This is the kind of indie we need. It's not emotionless detachment (though there's that here, and it's important for the style), but a full spectrum of human emotion without deception or attempts to present oneself as someone else, someone better or worse (and therefore better). There's not a single throwaway song on the album; the band has a unified sound, yet it doesn't feel like you're listening to the same songs, even if they're successful. The material is inspiredly composed and equally inspiredly performed.