Death Cab for Cutie Album: "Plans" Release Date: Aug 30, 2005 Label: Atlantic Rock-Rev Value: [6.5/10] Genre: Rock Styles: Indie Rock, Indie Pop Buy It

Tracklist:

1 Marching Bands of Manhattan (4:12)
2 Soul Meets Body (3:50)
3 Summer Skin (3:14)
4 Different Names for the Same Thing (5:08)
5 I Will Follow You into the Dark (3:09)
6 Your Heart Is an Empty Room (3:39)
7 Someday You Will Be Loved (3:11)
8 Crooked Teeth (3:23)
9 What Sarah Said (6:20)
10 Brothers on a Hotel Bed (4:31)
11 Stable Song (3:42)

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review by:Allmusic
reviewer: Rob Theakston
Allmusic Album Value: (4/5)

For your consideration: a wildly successful indie rock band with a legion of followers on an equally successful, highly credible independent label makes the jump to major-label powerhouse Atlantic, leading to much chagrin and speculation among its fans as they awaited with bated breath for what would happen to the group. The result was For Your Own Special Sweetheart, inarguably the most polished and fully realized album of Dischord alumnus Jawbox's career. Fast forward ten years and you find Barsuk's Death Cab for Cutie in the same position, making the same move. A new label, a larger crowd (thanks to their repeated appearances on The OC), and a side project of Ben Gibbard (Postal Service) that very well overshadowed the success of his main project. All of the moves were perfectly aligned to take the little band that could into the rock stratosphere. But the difference between Jawbox and Death Cab for Cutie was that For Your Own Special Sweetheart went on to be the finest release of Jawbox's canon. Plans definitely comes close to that mark, but falls slightly short. In comparison to the dry, raw production of Transatlanticism, Plans is warm and polished, the kind of album expected from a band obsessed with the sound of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. Chris Walla does an amazing job bringing the group's sound in a different direction than before without compromising too many of the things that made the group sound great to begin with. Thematically, Plans is the Death Cab for Cutie suitable for graduate students, world-weary and wiser from their experiences, realizing they can no longer be love-starved 20-somethings without a clue yet hopelessly cursed to face the same issues. And there's merit to be had in acknowledging that maturity, for even blink-182 figured out their age and released their "serious" album. Gibbard's wispy, poetic lyrics (which could easily have been stolen from Aimee Mann's dressing room while she wasn't looking) still remain an artery from which the rest of the band beats and are some of his finest ever, but this time around the band aligns itself more with a series of emotional murmurs rather than a heart attack. The album winds its way from one ballad to the next, with brief stopovers at moderately up-tempo numbers to help break things up a bit. And it's this sense of resignation that either makes or breaks the album, depending on which Death Cab for Cutie is your favorite: the melancholic, hopeless romantic or the one who wears its heart on its sleeve with unbridled energy and passion. If Transatlanticism was Gibbard's Pet Sounds and Postal Service was SMiLE, then this is definitely Wild Honey, loved by adoring new fans and those who enjoy the ballads. But those hoping for a bit more -- for the bar to be raised higher -- might find this a mildly predictable exercise in Gibbard exorcising the demons of Phil Collins that haunt him. Plans is both a destination and a transitional journey for the group, one that sees the fulfillment of years of toiling away to develop their ideas and sound. But it's with the completion of those ideas that band is faced with a new set of crossroads and challenges to tread upon: to stay the course and suffer stagnation or try something bold and daringly new with their future. Which road they'll take will make all the difference.

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review by:Pitchfork
reviewer: Joe Tangari, August 30, 2005
Album Value: (6.5/10)

Death Cab for Cutie once released an EP called Stability, the irony being that it was one of their few releases that branches away from their core sound. That's fine, to a point. Their stately, melodic indie pop gives them a big enough palette with which to paint albums that don't lose their flavor on the bedpost overnight, but it also means that their records can feel interchangeable.

On Plans, the band's fifth album, Death Cab made the jump from the friendly confines of Barsuk Records to the storied halls of Atlantic, a move that makes a lot of sense. The band is ready for the large, diverse audience a major can provide, and they make the transition seamlessly, in large part due to the underrated production of guitarist Chris Walla, who has a way of making even the weirder flourishes (and the band tries a few to mixed success here) feel totally natural.

Despite Walla's consistently cozy production, Ben Gibbard's lyrics continue to move from critiques of middle-class life to tackling Big Themes, here the relationship between death and love. On "What Sarah Said" he claims, "Love is watching someone die." On "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" it's the title sentiment, and on "Soul Meets Body" he says, "If the silence takes you, then I hope it takes me too."

"I Will Follow You..." is the album's quiet centerpiece, just Gibbard on acoustic guitar, his fragile, almost falsetto tenor, simple delivery, and unexpected turns of phrase turning an well-worn lyrical road, the fear of losing a lover, into something affecting. The way he personalizes the afterlife and draws in childhood Catholic school experiences is impressive, to say the least. All this and it's sequenced directly after the album's most musically ambitious track, "Different Names for the Same Thing", an overly melodramatic track that heads off on a ponderous, M83-aping electronic odyssey.

The band's other, better experiment is lead single "Soul Meets Body", a sleek pop track that excels except for when the drums drop dead, the textures get all smooshy, and Gibbard goes up the scale to sing the title-- it's such a weird blunder that it's hard to tell at first if it derails the song or just nudges it a bit. Several listens in, the song works on the strength of its catchy "ba da ba da ba ba" passages and the incredible verse melody, but that one little passage is awkward, like the song has something stuck in its teeth. Death Cab opens the album strongly with "Marching Bands of Manhattan", a song that feels like it's constantly in the process of taking off, with pensive drumming and big, sweeping vocals singing about sorrow seeping into your heart as if through a pin-hole.(...)

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review by: Rolling Stone
reviewer: ROB SHEFFIELD
Album Value: (3/5)

Sometimes you hear a hungry, young indie-rock band toughing it out in a small town somewhere, and you just know that this band is destined to take the whole world by storm. Death Cab for Cutie are not one of those bands. In fact, even their biggest fans have to be a bit gobsmacked at their success. On their fantastic 2000 album We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes, Death Cab were already masterful, tuneful, resonant upstarts, in full command of their own eccentric guitar-shamble style. But these Bellingham, Washington, indie dudes seemed unlikely to ever go out in public wearing socks that matched, much less find mass appeal. Who thought they'd become high school misfit pinup boys? Who thought Ben Gibbard's melancholic tenor would get airplay, both with Death Cab and his synth-pop side project the Postal Service? Who thought these non-fashion-plates would become muses to The O.C., playing the Bait Shop the way the Flaming Lips once played the Peach Pit on 90210? Just think: If Death Cab had finished this album a little sooner, they could have kept Mischa and Brandon together.

Death Cab broke through with their fourth and finest album, 2003's Transatlanticism. That disc still sounds so great, it's a little scary. Gibbard's emotive singing and guitar found the perfect foil in the production of guitarist-keyboardist Chris Walla, who gave the big pow to songs like "Title and Registration," "Tiny Vessels" and "Transatlanticism," amping up Gibbard's purploid poetics without steamrolling right over him. Also in 2003, Gibbard teamed up with producer Jimmy Tamborello for the Postal Service album, which came out of nowhere to become Sub Pop's biggest seller since Nirvana's Bleach. Not a bad one-two punch.

On Plans, Death Cab's fifth album (and first for a major label), they try hard not to make Transatlanticism all over again. Instead, they reach for an expansive, Abbey Road pop style, with mixed results. The high points are high, just not as high as last time. "Marching Bands of Manhattan" is a great start, with Gibbard chanting, "Your love is gonna drown" over an urgent guitar riff. The single "Soul Meets Body" has an R.E.M.-style jangle, sped up to electro-disco tempo. "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" strips it down to Gibbard's voice and acoustic guitar, which works powerfully for such a starkly emotional love song dealing with the imminence of death. Yet it demonstrates how wise Gibbard is to let the band mess with his pristine melodies, which would sound wispy and ignorable on their own..(...)

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review by: Pop Matters
reviewer: Ryan McDermott
Album Value: (7/10)

Death Cab the heart that they broke.

Death Cab for Cutie is like a woman that is meant only to be loved. You look down at her as you are lying in bed and want nothing but to kiss her forehead and wrap your arms around her. Even in her most heated moments she is still honest and tender. Of course, it's not like she can't do anything wrong. There are moments when she breaks your heart and you feel like you'll never forgive her. But then there you are looking down at her again from that soft perch of the mattress and pillow.

With The Photo Album Death Cab won my heart. With Transatlanticism, Death Cab broke it. And with their new album Plans they've mended it and won me back.

This is an amazing little pop record of amazing little pop songs. I've always liked simple Death Cab over full-sounding complex Death Cab (which is why I probably don't like Transatlanticism), and there are some gorgeous morsels on this album. This record isn't a musical revolution, but more of a musical lullaby, a sweet collection of sad and hopeful stories.

To me there are really three things that make a perfect pop song: melody, lyrics and Brian Wilson. Now Ben Gibbard is no Brian Wilson, but he's got melody and lyrics. In fact he is writing some of the most gorgeous lyrics around today (only The Weakerthans rival him in their tender, heart-wrenching honesty). With lines like, "Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule/ I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black/ I held my tongue as she told me 'Son, fear is the heart of love'/ So I never went back", Gibbard emotes sweet emo melody and lyrics without all of the overblown tragedy that plagues today's emo scene. In fact, save for the fact that Gibbard has a soft focus sort of upper register voice, these songs, and most of Death Cab's for that matter, are less whiney emo rants as they are beautiful indie-pop songs.(...)

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review by: Filter Mag
reviewer: Lesley Bargar
Album Value: (89%)

We’ve always loved Death Cab for Cutie. We didn’t exactly know why, but we knew it had something to do with Ben Gibbard. That distinctly clean voice, those maudlin novel-esque lyrics, the off-kilter path his vocals pave through the music… these traits have always been center to Death Cab’s appeal. Well, that and the fact that Seth wooed Summer during a rockin’ set at the Tackle Box (the first and only O.C. joke I swear). But really-really-we just liked him, our awkward, talented frontman. It was never the pretty good indie pop behind Ben that made DCFC remarkable. It was the little dance he was doing in the front of them. So like my mom used to say, when you can get the Gibbard-brand milk for free (via Postal Service, specifically) buying the Death Cab cow seems a bit pointless.


But just when the rest of the band seemed doomed to become Ben’s backup players, this all changed. As if realizing that they’ve now got to compete for airtime with the Gibbard entity, the band steps it up for Plans, DCFC’s first major label release. Songs that begin like lonelier, piano based “Transatlanticisms” switch gears in the middle and become post-rock noise epics (“Different Names for the same Things”). Tracks that would have been upbeat, guitar-driven singles are now infused with sophisticated layers of electronics and percussion ("Soul Meets Body” or “Brothers on a Hotel Bed”). There’s church organ and notable time signatures and… well yeah, a shit-load of sad piano. All this quality and sophistication is done well, but not too well, thankfully. So now on Plans, thanks to the label switch or the competing egos or a better in-studio snack bar or whatever, DCFC is becoming a band that’s worth noticing apart from Ben.

Still, the best part of Plans is that Ben’s sappy emotional puppetry, pristine voice, and words (and words) about love, death, separation and freckles are, again, right at the center of it. Which, even without the gripping saga of the inter-band power struggle, makes for an overall kick-ass record. Kinda like the time Zach kicked Seth’s ass at the comic book premiere. (Sorry, I just had to do it.)

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review by: Glorious Noise
reviewer: Tom Mantzouranis, August 25, 2005
Album Value: (-/-)
Who would've thought five years ago that Death Cab For Cutie, fresh off their minimalist breakthrough, We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes, would have endured a stylistic change, survived a near break-up, watched Ben Gibbard's Postal Service side project eclipse Death Cab's success after only one album, experienced a boost in popularity themselves, and signed to a major label for their fifth album, Plans?

The band, who announced that they were jumping from birthplace Barsuk Records to Atlantic, were lucky to avoid a lot of the conjecture that comes about when an indie band signs to a major label. Their fans, notoriously loyal, stuck with the group after the announcement and decided to play the waiting game before they made up their minds on the move to Atlantic. Which only makes sense, really–there's been no need to worry about the band becoming more television ready and accessible since Death Cab beat Atlantic to the punch, taking that leap themselves on their third full-length, The Photo Album.

Plans bears more in common with The Photo Album than its direct predecessor, Transatlanticism, which actually took a step backwards meeting the band's other albums at their midway point. No need to compromise anymore, as Death Cab have officially dropped the other shoe, putting out their first official pop album.(...)

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