Death Cab for Cutie may be the closest thing I have to an OMGZ ALL TIME FAV!!!!! band and I was cautiously anticipating guitarist Chris Walla’s solo album, Field Manual. Thankfully, I was a bit wary because for a member of one of the most successful indie rock acts in the past decade, Field Manual comes off as a bit amateurish. As the producer of Tegan and Sara’s The Con and Death Cab’s albums you would think he would realize when an artist needs to use autotune in order to not be laughed at. Well apparently Walla couldn’t manage to swallow his pride as the vocals on this album sound like the local bar’s cover band at times. Slower songs like “A Bird is a Song” that prominently feature Walla’s voice are nearly unbearable, as is anytime he stretches to reach the upper limits of his range as in the chorus of the single “Sing Again”. Not to say the album is a total loss, it’s just that coming from one of the masterminds behind Transatlanticism, The Photo Album, and the rest of Death Cab’s catalog, it is rather uninspired and frankly boring at times. If there were a different vocalist, Field Manual actually wouldn’t be a bad debut, albeit generic, album for an upstart indie rock band, too bad the point of solo albums is..well…doing it solo. There are a few salvageable parts to this album as Walla explores many different types of singer-songwriter sub-genres such as the Rocky Votolato-esque tune “Holes” and the quick-paced pop-rockin’ “Geometry & Co.” However, leave the side projects to Ben Gibbard, The Postal Service this is not.
