Death Cab For Cutie
Plans

THE REVIEW

How can you not fall in love with Death Cab For Cutie?

 With this splendid work dated 2005, the Cabs confirm themselves as one of the most solid American alternative pop-rock realities. The album in question is the follow-up to the monumental "Transatlanticism" from 2003, and it granted the band discreet and well-deserved fame (gold record in the States and a nomination for "Best Alternative Album" at the 2005 Grammy Awards).

"Plans" is produced by the talented guitarist Chris Walla and is the band's first LP for a major label, namely Atlantic. It’s easy to guess that fans and critics had their guns cocked and ready.

However, everyone had to reconsider: "Plans" is a beautiful, complete, and thrilling album.

 Enriched by a band in great shape and a singer like Ben Gibbard, highly skilled and in top form, Death Cab For Cutie delivers an album that manages to balance the enormous quality expressed in every single note with great accessibility, which never veers into the ingratiating or commercial.

There are so many gems to point out. One comes right after the linear opening of "Marching Bands Of Manhattan", and it’s that pop jewel corresponding to the first single "Soul Meets Body"; in this superb song everything is perfect, from Gibbard's voice to the never intrusive acoustic guitar, from the melodic and sweet chorus to the backing vocals that serve as a delightful embellishment to an absolutely perfect piece structure. Melodic and sweet is also "Summer Skin", more "resting" on bass and piano. There are also tracks with an emotional crescendo, such as "Different Names For The Same Thing", which starts from a simple piano/vocal score to culminate in an instrumentally intense finale, or "Someday You Will Be Loved". "Crooked Teeth", the second single from the album, is perfect and catchy pop rock, as well as being one of the peaks of the work. There's no talk of low points, not even when Gibbard and company delve into the wild territory of the melancholic ballad ("I Will Follow You Into The Dark", or the closer "Stable Song"). The rest of the album always maintains a compositional level that is hard to find in other bands of the genre.

 Excellent effort, then, from Death Cab For Cutie. It’s a shame that Americans prefer to boast about 50 Cent and Britney Spears; too bad for them, they don’t even know what they’re missing out on.