New Music Reviews: Death Cab For Cutie, Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang

Death Cab For Cutie are back for their 11th album of anguished indie rock. Meanwhile, the pairing of percussionist Beibei Wang and keyboardist Hannah Peel is fresh and new.

Death Cab For Cutie

I Built You A Tower

2026, 8/10
Washington state indie band Death Cab For Cutie have been around since 1997. They enjoyed acclaim for emotional, tuneful early albums like Transatlanticism and Plans. I hadn’t checked in with them in years, but fellow music bloggers were enthusiastic about 2026’s I Built You A Tower.

I Built You A Tower reflects Ben Gibbard’s experiences of touring two of his beloved records, while also going through a divorce. He compartmentalised his feelings, putting aside the emotions surrounding his breakup to perform in arenas. I Built You A Tower is surprisingly raw and tough, with excellent production from John Congleton. Aside from Gibbard, drummer Jason McGerr is the only remaining member of the lineup that released Transatlanticism in 2003, but this lineup feels like a band, tight and cohesive.

Nothing is going to supplant Transatlanticism. I’ve often said that this deep into a career, our goal is to just make the best record we possibly can, and remind people who have been fans why they love the band.
Ben Gibbard, The Line of Best Fit

The taut rocker ‘Punching the Flowers’ is a standout, with an abrasive guitar solo and insightful lyrics. The single ‘Riptides’ is also tough and rhythmic. Even the pretty tunes, like ‘Stone Over Water’ and ‘The Flavor Of Metal’, are presented in full-bodied arrangements.

I Built You A Tower is an impressively vital 11th album from an indie institution.

Hannah Peel and Beibei Wang

The Endless Dance

2026, 8.5/10
Chinese percussionist Beibei Wang and Irish keyboard player Hannah Peel first worked together with the Manchester Collective. They performed a fully improvised show as a duo, then spent five days recording at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios. Largely instrumental, it’s a fascinating synthesis, based around the cycles of the Chinese calendar and of flora and fauna.

A prepared piano is one where the normal sound is changed by inserting objects under its lid, changing the way the hammers hit the strings, or blocking off certain strings to muffle them or change their timbre.
Classical Music 101

Peel’s prepared piano is already percussive. Adding Wang’s percussion creates a fascinating bed of sounds, sophisticated, evocative, and quirky. It’s often strange and exotic, like ‘Awaken the Insects’, with Wang recycling a Chinese tongue twister for her vocalisations. ‘Tiger Sex’ is also weird, with more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT8NJwWzN6k?t=0

But more often, The Endless Dance is evocative and pretty. ‘Wild Geese Arrive’ is a terrific opener, while ‘Grain Rain’ builds to a well-earned climax. ‘Thunder Begins to Soften’ adds ambient touches to the burbling rhythms.

The Endless Dance is full of imagination and never predictable.