A Melody Softly Soaring Through My Atmosphere

Usually I’m on the cusp of what’s going on in music; the guy people come to find out what’s good. One band with a lot of buzz I missed out on so far is Death Cab for Cutie. I’ve had heard of the band before, but never took the time to check them out. Without listening, I pegged them a pretentious band with an unfortunate name. But with the release of their major label debut, I figured I should take a listen.

What I found on their latest album, Plans, were lush melodies and soft chords that wouldn’t be out of place on the Garden State Soundtrack. Except Plans, as a whole, is more polished and better put together than most of Zach Braff’s mixtape. You can easily get lost in the music without knowing where you’re time has gone. The lead song, Marching Bands of Manhattan, takes the signature crushing guitars of Coldplay and softens them up with great results. A drum cadence drives Summer Skin almost into a march. Different Names for the Same Place starts off with a bare bones piano track that turns into spacey song half way threw.

I Will Wait for You in the Dark is a stripped down love song with an acoustic guitar accompanying the singer. With lyrics like “If heaven and hell decide, That they both are satisfied, Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs, If there's no one beside you, When your soul embarks, Then I'll follow you into the dark,” This song will send every hopeless romantic to their guitar to try to learn this song so they can serenade a loved on with it. What Sarah Said is a sad song that deals with the unbearable task of sitting in a hospital knowing this is it, “And I'm thinking of what Sarah said, but love is watching someone die.”

The main strength of the album is the verdant lyrics such as: “Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole” (Marching Bands of Manhattan), “I've no words to share with anyone. The boundaries of language are quietly cursed” (Different Names for the Same Place), “Fall fades how it ages when you're away, Spring blooms and you find the love that's true” (Your Heart Is an Empty Room), and what college girl not get swept off her feet by a line like “You're so cute when you're slurring your speech” (Crooked Teeth).

Song to Download – I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Plans gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.