Death Cab for Cutie, “Asphalt Meadows.”

Ben Gibbard has been singing songs of anxiety and despair for 25 years with Death Cab for Cutie. That’s a long time, but those who love his doom-and-gloom rock needn’t worry; time hasn’t made him any more chipper. Their 10th album, Asphalt Meadows, produced by John Congleton (Franz Ferdinand, St. Vincent, Angel Olsen) is chock-full of the existential dread we’ve come to know and love.

“I Don’t Know How I Survive” starts the album and sets the tone with lyrics about a late-night panic attack: “Pacing across the room while she’s asleep/ Tears raining down your cheeks/ Trying to hold on.” It features handclaps, rhythmic guitar and twinkling synths, which all dissolve into distorted guitar at the chorus.

“Roman Candles” bursts in with a noisy, distorted bass and then a sharp, piercing and almost industrial guitar line. “I used to feel everything like a flame/ Now it’s a struggle to feel anything,” Gibbard laments, before adding, “I am learning to let go/ Of everything I tried to hold too long/ ‘Cause they all explode like roman candles.”

The opening lyric of the title track is classic Gibbard: “Your kiss was a lonely prayer when you slipped it into my mouth.” “Asphalt Meadows” has very ’80s-sounding drumming with piano and acoustic guitar, and the sound of the chorus is very reminiscent of The Cure. “Rand McNally” is a nostalgic ode to having to use a map to find one’s way. The swaying verses give way to a straight-ahead chorus. The line “don’t let the light fade” in the chorus is repeated at the end of the song as a coda. While it’s theoretically just a character sketch, the song can also be interpreted as a tribute to fans and former members of the band, for whom Gibbard will keep the light going as he continues forward with Death Cab.

“Here to Forever” starts with a steady toe-tapping beat and a recurring thought Gibbard has while watching ’50s movies–that all the actors in the movies are no longer living. Watching, he can’t help “falling in love with bones and ashes.” This part is hooky and it could have been the basis for a song all by itself. However, the main refrain in this song is, “I want to know the measure from here to forever/ I want to feel the pressure of God or whatever.”

“Foxglove Through the Clearcut” has more of that signature Death Cab for Cutie sound with the chiming guitars and repeated lyrics; the chorus is simply repetitions of the line “Nowhere left to go.” It sounds hopeless, and yet so beautiful, which, come to think of it, pretty much sums up most of Death Cab’s ouvre. Even the album cover, with two figures in ghostlike ponchos, matches this misty mood. Bay Area readers will recognize the view instantly as foggy San Francisco. We’re told Gibbard, who’s made music in the Bay many times, snapped the shot himself while out on a run.

“Pepper,” a beautiful melancholic song about the demise of a relationship, is one of the strongest tracks on the album. It starts with just a voice and an acoustic guitar, before simple piano comes in over a drum loop. “Take a picture to remember me by/ To show everybody who you left behind/ The near-miss that almost shocked you out the blue/ I was a city you were only passing through,” Gibbard sings. The sentiment of the chorus is similar to that of Jeff Buckley’s “Last Goodbye:” “Kiss me this one last time/ Tell me that you once were mine.”

“I Miss Strangers” is a sentiment to which many of us can relate during the pandemic: “These days I miss strangers more than I miss my friends.” Most of the music in this song is very upbeat, with a driving rhythm guitar, but the bridge slows the tune way down to a Pink-Floyd-like reverie that has Gibbard pleading for someone to “reach out.”

Gibbard pens a touching ode to a best friend on “Wheat Like Waves,” about listening to Prefab Sprout together in a ’90s Honda Accord. “Fragments from the Decade,” has slow jazzy guitar and what sounds like the shouts of children playing over a militaristic drumbeat in the back of the mix and reverb-heavy guitar.

Asphalt Meadows goes out on a high note. “I’ll Never Give Up On You” features a menacing buzz, heavy drumming and an orchestral synth. “I’ve given up on aspiration/ And I’ve given up on ever being cool/ Gave up the drugs that made me restless/ And the alcohol that made me cruel/ But I’ll never give up on you,” Gibbard sings with conviction, and it might be directed at a lover, to his band or to the audience. After all this time, it’s good to know that he hasn’t given up on Death Cab for Cutie, and he has a great album to show for it.

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold and Instagram.com/thousandfold.