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It's nice when a plan seems to finally come to fruition. Ben Gibbard,
the lead-man behind longtime indie darlings Death Cab For Cutie,
has been slowly building to this point for half a decade or more…
And Gibbard has finally arrived. His music has found a mature voice,
the songs achieved a point of brilliance merely hinted at in his past
releases, and the musicianship and arrangements on Plans climb
to a place far higher than the band has previously reached. And all
of this on an album laced with nothing but references to death.
The lead single "Soul Meets Body" sounds more like a New
Order track than a traditional Death Cab track. The guitars chime
out melodies that are blissful and almost sweet, while Gibbard's voice
seems to have achieved a depth and consciousness that it used to lack,
creating a bed of sound filled with empathetic emotion and brilliantly
presenting the glorious lyrics. Gibbard's songwriting and lyrical
abilities are nowhere more apparent than on the bleak acoustic track
"I Will Follow You Into The Dark": "But if Heaven and
Hell decide they're both satisfied/ illuminate the NO's on their vacancy
signs/ if there's no one beside you when your soul embarks/ then I'll
follow you into the dark." The rocking sway of "Crooked
Teeth" never fails to amaze my ears. Gibbard once more sounds
like a Bernard Sumner student, but his refrains are brilliantly
melodic, creating my favorite single line on the record: "You're
so cute when you're slurring your speech, but they're closing the
bar and they want us to leave" and a great guitar break that
makes me think of The Catherine Wheel. This track leans more
toward the feel of some of the band's previous recordings, but the
major difference is the quality of the sound - this entire record
feels more alive than previous outings. The songs are more dynamic,
less flat. It's a hard thing to explain…
"What Sarah Said" is an amazing track, built around a gently
rolling piano line, and fleshed out by the amazingly fluid drumming
of Jason McGerr; some of the finest young drumming that I've
heard in years. The song will send chills down your spine when listening
to the brilliant poetic love song laced with the concurrent death
theme.
The most obvious thing, to me, on this new record is the tremendous
influence of working so closely with Jimmy Tamborello on the
Postal Service project. The electronic nature of those songs
seems to be reflected in the nature of these new Death Cab songs,
the melodies having the same uncluttered feeling and pervasive mood.
Does this hail a new era for the darlings of indie rock? I certainly
hope so. With music like this, I'll never not listen to Death Cab
again… and I'll even stop making fun of all the indie kids that
espouse their greatness to me.
-Embo Blake
Track Listing:
1. Marching Bands of Manhattan
2. Soul Meets Body
3. Summer Skin
4. Different Names for the Same Thing
5. I Will Follow You into the Dark
6. Your Heart Is an Empty Room
7. Someday You Will Be Loved
8. Crooked Teeth
9. What Sarah Said
10. Brothers on a Hotel Bed
11. Stable Song
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