Plans Farmington NM

Plans

Death Cab For Cutie

Atlantic Records, 2005

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/15/2005

Sad and beautiful. Poetic and profound. Densely melodic andimmensely listenable.

(What? Complete sentences? You people are so demandingsometimes…)

Death Cab For Cutie -- led by singer/lyricist Ben Gibbard andguitarist/producer Christopher Walla -- has mastered theunderappreciated art of making melancholy feel gorgeous andcompelling. Much like 2003's magnificent Transatlanticism , Plans is a somewhat surreal cycle of songs aboutinterpersonal distance, relationships caught in awkward transition,and cautious optimism mixed with resigned pessimism.

The very best of these songs have a kind of irrefutable artistryand cohesiveness that can be smashingly powerful. To wit: