“Northern Lights” by Death Cab for Cutie

"Northern Lights" comes from Thank You for Today, Death Cab for Cutie's seventh album, and went out as its third single in November 2018 on Atlantic. It's a homecoming of sorts for Benjamin Gibbard, who name-checks Dyes Inlet, the stretch of water in western Washington near Bremerton, the town where he grew up. He pictured it as his own John Hughes movie: two people stuck in a dead-end suburb, killing time on the water, one of them longing for the other, both aware the place is only a way station.

Gibbard sings and plays electric guitar, Dave Depper adds acoustic and electric guitar and string synthesizer, Zac Rae covers guitar, piano and sampler, and Nick Harmer plays bass and bass synth. Rich Costey produced and mixed, and CHVRCHES singer Lauren Mayberry joins in on vocals.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.