Death Cab for Cutie - You Can Play These Songs with Chords

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Music reviews of You Can Play These Songs with Chords

Music Review: Death Cab presents excellent B-sides/demo collection
Rating: 4 Stars

The opening eight tracks are a re-release of the demo recordings singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard did in 1997 (released with the same title as this compliation). Playing all of the instruments himself, the bulk of these demos resurfaced a short while later on Death Cab's first proper album, Something About Airplanes (then played with a full band). For the most part, the sound quality is awfully lo-fi, which recorder/future DCFC guitarist Chris Walla was obviously aiming for. As for the music, most of the songs are close enough to the final product, which is two-thumbs-up material. The few demos that didn't make it, like "Hindsight" and "That's Incentive" (with its limber bassline) show that not all songs cut were bad.

The rest of the material is a collection of B-sides from DC's history. Some, like "TV Trays" and the original version of "Song for Kelly Huckaby," are on the verge of being subpar. Others, like the pretty "Army Corp of Architects," the quasi-Built to Spill-ish "Prove My Hypotheses" and the Something About Airplanes misfire "State Street Residential," are some of the best tracks the band has recorded. Some, like the hilarious cover of the Smiths' "This Charming Man" and the 'European Dance Hit' "Tomorrow," just don't fit into any catagory.

For the most part, this is a great collection of songs Death Cab fans will be eager to get ahold of. For the newcomer, this may prove to be a confusing assortment of tracks.

Oh, side note: the CD insert is a great help: I was always interested in who plays on songs, and this delievers in addition to the amusing notes provided by the band members.

Description of You Can Play These Songs with Chords

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop
• Rock