Death Cab for Cutie Share Jagged New Single 'Punching the Flowers' From Upcoming Album

Death Cab for Cutie have shared "Punching the Flowers," the second single from their forthcoming 11th album I Built You A Tower, and it's one of the sharpest, most angular things Ben Gibbard has put his name on in years. The track arrived Monday alongside a video directed by Jason Lester, and it marks a noticeable step away from the gentler moments of 2022's Asphalt Meadows into something more coiled and confrontational.

The album drops June 5 on ANTI- Records — a move that brings the band back to independent life after two decades on Atlantic Records. That shift feels audible in the music. "Punching the Flowers" has a jagged, restless energy, built on a shifting rhythm that mirrors the frustration at its core: Gibbard reportedly drew the song from watching a toddler throw a tantrum and punch flowers outside a bodega, spinning that image into a larger metaphor about someone who has something beautiful and sees its hold over him as a cage.

I Built You A Tower was produced and engineered by John Congleton — the go-to for artists who want something with teeth (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, Sleater-Kinney) — and assembled from just three weeks of sessions at Animal Rites Studio in Los Angeles, with additional recording at the band members' homes scattered across Seattle, Bellingham, Los Angeles, and Portland. The compressed timeline is unusual for Death Cab, who've historically taken their time in the studio, and the urgency shows in the music.

Behind the scenes, the album's creation was shaped by an intense period for Gibbard. The band spent recent years celebrating the 20th anniversaries of their seminal records Transatlanticism and Plans with massive sold-out tours, fronting both Death Cab and the Postal Service on arena stages for hours a night. That dual workload — and the personal upheaval that accompanied it — fed directly into the writing of I Built You A Tower.

"Punching the Flowers" follows the album's first single, "Riptides," which was shared alongside the album announcement in March. Together, the two tracks suggest a record that's reaching for something rawer and more direct than the atmospheric sprawl of Asphalt Meadows — more in line with the anxious energy of Narrow Stairs or the jittery experimentation of Codes and Keys.

I Built You A Tower Tracklist

01. Full of Stars

02. Punching The Flowers

03. Pep Talk

04. I Built You A Tower (a)

05. Envy The Birds

06. Stone Over Water

07. How Heavenly a State

08. Trap Door

09. Riptides

10. The Flavor of Metal

11. I Built You A Tower (b)

The band has also announced a UK, Ireland, and European tour for fall 2026 to support the new record, with two nights each in Dublin and London and stops across the continent through early October.

I Built You A Tower is out June 5 on ANTI- Records.