Death Cab For Cutie -Plans

Thu 23rd Feb, 2006 in Music Reviews

There’s a lot of soft rock bands which owe their mainstream success to being featured as part of the soundtrack to television show The O.C.. Probably the most well known of these bands, and certainly the most deserving, are Death Cab For Cutie, an irregularly named quartet from Seattle. Their fourth album, Plans, has just hit stores, and those willing to look past the lack of big hooks will find an album of sublime taste, subtle, tender and arguably the most accessible Death Cab album to date.

It’s the first album for Death Cab on their new record label Atlantic Records, after four previous albums with smaller indie label Barsuk. Lead singer Ben Gibbard does his usual fine work; his delicate vocals and intricate lyrics form the centerpiece of the songs, and, as anyone who has seen them perform live will attest, he is certainly the emotional centre of the band.

Album opener Marching Bands Of Manhattan opens with slight organ sounds, before a memorable guitar riff and Gibbard’s vocals slide in over the top. It’s an ideal album opener, introspective and reflective, and offering a taste of the great potential album to come.

Major radio single Soul Meets Body is next, and it’s probably one of the poppiest songs in the band’s catalogue. Its up-tempo, and light hearted, even though the lyrics are the usual slightly dreary Gibbard style.

Summer Skin opens with a somber piano melody, and some excellent guitar work add to the melancholic mood. Gibbard proves his reputation as one of the finest vocalists in soft rock is well deserved, and even more so on the next song. Different Names For The Same Thing is a plaintive ballad driven almost entirely by a gentler piano melody. At five minutes and eight seconds, it outstays its welcome a little, but it’s to be expected for the kind of song which it is.

I Will Follow You Into The Dark maintains the darker mood, but leaves the piano behind. Instead a simple acoustic melody accompanies Gibbard’s beautiful delivery of this supreme love song. Your Heart Is An Empty Room is a bit of a slow burner, beginning slowly before ratcheting up the intensity, even if the tempo remains at that familiar half-speed.

Someday You Will Be Loved turns it’s title into a eulogy for a relationship, but manages to keep the mood upbeat. Crooked Teeth follows this pattern and is one of the most rocking songs on the album, even if the guitars disappear for the bridges and interludes. Meanwhile Gibbard takes an extremely simple couplet,

“No, you can’t find at all
If there was nothing there all along,”

and turns it into a major revelation on misguided relationships. Such is the power of Gibbard; even when discussing the most simple of concepts or ideas, his powerful and lucid voice will cause all but the most bleak-hearted to give second thought.

What Sarah Said is the longest song on the album at six minutes and twenty seconds, but its hauntingly beautiful piano melodies, especially once they begin layering over the top of one another, make it worth every second. Brothers On A Hotel Bed is similarly piano based, but extremely slow.

The last song on the album is Stable Song, a reflective and somber number, once again at a very low tempo. Finishing the album with two very low tempo songs will bring the wind out of the sails of the listener, but then Death Cab have never really been known for doing what seemed popular at the time.

Instead, they’ve carved out a niche for themselves as they begin to bring slow rock back to mainstream attention. Many other bands may profit from this resurgence, but if Death Cab For Cutie continue to release albums as magnificent as Plans, they’ll be kings of their domain for many years to come.