2019 hasn't been a year of new music for Death Cab For Cutie, but a time for playful exploration. The iconic American indie band returned last year with their first album in nearly three years, Thank You For Today. Since, we've gotten an impressive number of remixes of its singles from all across the electronic sphere, from Photay to Daedelus to BT. In a move that will either make you feel thrilled or leave you wondering when this string will end, Louis The Child is the latest to be added to this remix list, putting in work on "I Dreamt We Spoke Again." The California future pop duo's remix follows another from earlier this year from Scientist.
Remix packages can open up opportunities for artists to reach across genres, extending their brand's arm to new pastures for fresh exposure in a green crop of potential fans. Artists like Eric Prydz, Flume and Alesso have successfully remixed music from the indie and rock worlds, making it their own while exposing the original artist to their existing fans, and vice versa. As remixers, they chose their moves wisely, or were chosen for the noteworthy moves they've made to make them the talk of the industry.
It's clear that this case was the latter gone wrong. Death Cab's music is notoriously moody and melancholy, ripe for electronic expansion. And Louis The Child have been pioneers in their own right, paving the way for the future house movement and its crossover into pop. But in this remix, Louis The Child's production falls flat, feeling like they didn't want to step on anyone's toes in trying something slightly new or different. With a listen, it's easy to forget that they're behind the work and it's not a no-name pop producer behind the wheel. It's half-timed in such a way that its tempo feels like it's tripping over itself (see: Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in Wolf of Wall Street), and evolves into a pulsing set of synths almost establish feeling, but deserve more.
Death Cab For Cutie rose to prominence in the early aughts, when the members of Louis The Child, and many of their fans, weren't even 10. While this doesn't mean they haven't discovered each other's music since, their choice to work together feels like a try-hard marketing move, or just plain tone deaf.
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