Editing Transatlanticism (section)

==Composition==
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|filename    = Death_Cab_for_Cutie_-_Transatlanticism.ogg
|title       = "Transatlanticism"
|description = Sample from the song "Transatlanticism".
|format      = [[Ogg]]}}
Throughout its eleven tracks, ''Transatlanticism'' is a concept album exploring themes of isolation, sorrow, and long-distance romance.<ref name="seattlepi">{{cite news|last=Stout|first=Gene|date=May 7, 2004|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/music/article/All-hail-Death-Cab-with-good-reason-1144266.php|title=All hail Death Cab, with good reason|newspaper=[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]|access-date=July 9, 2013}}</ref> Lauren Viera at the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' categorized the album's contents as "earnest love songs and bittersweet ballads."<ref name="ct03">{{cite news|first=Lauren|last=Viera|date=August 15, 2003|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-08-15-0308150231-story.html|title=Songwriting a way of life for Gibbard|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=August 20, 2019}}</ref> When creating the LP, Gibbard felt "fascinated with the idea of geographic barriers as metaphors for personal, emotional barriers."<ref name="sn"/> The album's title is a word Gibbard created to reference the [[Atlantic Ocean]]'s vast reach and its ability to separate individuals. Harmer looked up the word and discovered it indeed already existed, having been used in science journals.<ref>{{cite news|title=Waterworks|date=November 1, 2003|first=Tim|last=Barber|work=[[Nylon (magazine)|Nylon]]}}</ref> The inspiration for the album's title track came from Gibbard observing individuals saying goodbye to each another at [[Heathrow Airport]], and knowing that they may not see one another for some time. "I had this fantastic idea of what if people were just able to transport themselves across the places or events that separated them," Gibbard told writer [[Andy Greenwald]] on the song's genesis.<ref name="sn"/>

Prior to creating the album, Gibbard felt increasingly exhausted with touring, and had a relationship fall apart because of being away for so long. These experiences comprised what Gibbard reflected on as the "lowest" year in his life, and influenced the songwriting on ''Transatlanticism'' profoundly.<ref name="sn"/> He began to focus more on songwriting as a career. He was aiming to complete one song per day, and for the album, he brought the band 25–30 demo tracks.<ref name="altpress"/> Much of Gibbard's lyrics were composed during a "period of exile" when he was living in San Francisco,<ref name="press"/> house-sitting for [[John Vanderslice]], the artist and owner of Tiny Telephone Studios.<ref name="ign">{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2003/09/04/death-cab-for-cutie|title=Interview: Death Cab For Cutie|date=September 4, 2003|first1=Will|last1=Agrella|first2=Marty|last2=Smith|website=[[IGN]]|access-date=August 20, 2019}}</ref> Walla considered Gibbard's writing an improvement on past releases, later calling it "some of the most genuine and straightforward writing he's ever done, really open and unguarded in a way that was kind of new."<ref name="altpress"/> His work with Tamborello informed his songwriting for ''Transatlanticism'', with particular emphasis on redeveloping songs and deciding what to leave in or out.<ref name="ew03">{{cite magazine|title=Five Rounds with… Death Cab for Cutie|date=November 21, 2003|first=Steve|last=Kandell|issue=738|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]}}</ref> Gibbard would submit his songs to the band, who from there would take them and redevelop them.<ref name="wsj">{{cite news|title=The Lonesome Lyrics of Ben Gibbard|date=January 21, 2004|first=Jim|last=Fusilli|page=D13|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]}}</ref> The musicians would take each song, break it back down to its melody and lyrics, and completely re-work the original arrangement if they felt it creatively necessary. "By asking for, and allowing more input from all of us, we could all help each other to explore new territory and take a few more risks," Harmer said.<ref name="press"/>

Greenwald, writing for [[MTV]], writes that the album's songs "slow dance between genres—lush, sensitive piano ballads bump up against and blur into kaleidoscopic guitar grooves."<ref name="sn"/> The album emphasizes ambient noises, including "clicks, whooshes, and whirs";<ref name="sn"/> the title track, for example, is built around the humming of an airplane engine.<ref name="cmj"/> Its mood is often somber or dark, which Gibbard figured was an extension of his [[point of view (philosophy)|point of view]] in life: "I have this sense of realism that sometimes is a little depressing," he confessed to ''Magnet'' in 2003.<ref name="magnet">{{cite news|title=Auto Focus|date=November 1, 2003|first=Josh|last=Modell|issue=61|page=15|work=[[Magnet (magazine)|Magnet]]}}</ref> Jim Fusilli, writing for ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', found the content on the album "often-gloomy, [but] yearning-for-optimism."<ref name="wsj"/> Walla rejected the notion that the content on the album was bleak, noting that Gibbard's lyrics are mainly a "real simple expression of need and needing to be loved."<ref name="mtv04">{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/1486510/death-cab-for-cuties-sound-travels-farther-thanks-to-tv/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011211436/http://www.mtv.com/news/1486510/death-cab-for-cuties-sound-travels-farther-thanks-to-tv/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 11, 2014|title=Death Cab for Cutie's 'Sound' Travels Farther Thanks to TV|date=April 30, 2004|access-date=August 20, 2019|work=MTV News|first=Rodrigo|last=Perez}}</ref> [[Kelefa Sanneh]], writing for ''[[The New York Times]]'', observed that an extension of the album's long-distance theme lies in each song's reliance "upon a single, fragile-sounding melodic line—a skein of broken guitar chords, a reverberating piano."<ref>{{cite news|title=Straight from the Heart of a Long-Distance Lover|date=October 25, 2003|first=Kelefa|last=Sanneh|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>