Labels: Barsuk
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Look, it’s 430pm on a Sunday afternoon and it’s dark outside. What’s up with that? It’s only late October. I’m sure it never got dark this early, even when the clocks jumped back that one hour that they do each year. Anyway, the grey afternoon’s of this time of year are perfect for the sort of music Death Cab For Cutie. And it just so happens that this afternoon was grey, and that I was listening to Death Cab For Cutie.
DCFC’s latest album is one of those “must hear” records if you’re at all a fan of the pretty sounding, quiet indie pop / rock music of bands like Built To Spill, and this EP will serve you equally as well if you need an introduction. Whilst not having the full blissful effect that “We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes” does, the small dose on offer here would definitely leaving you yearning for more if it was your first encounter with the band. Opening up with some casio drumbeats in the background on “Photobooth” the scene is set straight away, letting the lush guitars and soothing vocals sneak up on you and calm you into a state of relaxed satisfaction. The gorgeous “Technicolor Girls” follows, full of warmth and sleepiness as the guitars jangle back and forth, the drumming barely noticeable in the background. Final original song is “Song For Kelly Huckaby”, where they use some mood setting strings to introduce the song before rocking out into some edgier, yet still somehow exceptionally slack, guitar work.
So those three songs here are brand new, and it also features an acoustic version of “405″ and an alternate one of “Company Calls Epilogue”. So you could question the need for either of those, but they certainly don’t detract from this record.
Definite comparisons to the slower Built to Spill moments can be made, though one part of the chorus of the first song rather oddly reminds me of Jimmy Eat World, though just for a fleeting moment. Thinking of JEW, I had to laugh when the press sheet used the phrase here “strictly-indie emo kids” when talking about the kind of person who’d like this. You what? I can’t believe they even dared bring that word into the equation here. Ouch.
Lovely. And it’s still dark outside. And it’s still Sunday afternoon. Guess I can listen to it again then.