The early word on Field Manual

When Death Cab for Cutie lead guitarist Chris Walla's solo effort was first announced on this blog, it was with tepid enthusiasm and moderate hopes at best. The gravest doubt that plagued anticipation of this album was that Walla's skills as a musician, not to mention a vocalist, would not match his abilities as a producer. We here at NLtS suspected that Field Manual would not be worth the wait.

Now, three bonus tracks have been released - you can get them for free if you buy Field Manual from the Barsuk Records online store. Ever the Eager Critics, a copy was ordered for review by NLtS. Upon listening to the three bonus tracks ("Like A Spark," "Sing Again," and "Our Plans, Collapsing") it seems our suspicions were unfortunately quite correct.

Walla's skills as a producer are admirable, but not conducive to the acoustic demo format these three songs assume. The bare production here does little more than reveal the bleak mediocrity of Walla's songcraft. Anyone who listens to these three tracks will hear the rest of the album - whatever shimmering production Walla piles on top of it - for precisely what it is: production value and little else. These three songs have put on parade all of Walla's weaknesses, namely his mediocrity as a guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist. His vocals are off pitch, his guitar is messy, and it is not in a raw, Dylanesque way, just in a hurried, careless, unfinished way that belies a lack of skill rather than a stylistic choice. These three tracks do not bode well for the rest of the album, as they confirm all our worst fears: this is going to be a record whose only merit is its production. The songs, the guitar, and the vocals will not be able to keep up.


-PTC