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Recording:
  We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes  
 
Artist:
  Death Cab For Cutie  
 
Label:
  Barsuk  
 
Release Date:
  21.March.2000  
 
Reviewed by:
  Tracers  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

I confess - I'm part of the Indie Rock Mafia. I like to stand at concerts with my arms crosses and bop my head. A band with too many instrument pedals makes me happy. And I get a little chill whenever I hear those self-effacing, relationships-suck-because-I screwed-up-everything lyrics. I like the Replacements; I love The Pogues. I bounce to Built to Spill and I survived a concert by The Make Up.

My friends have suggested that the music a person is drawn to reflects what is missing in their own soul as well as what talks to their own lives. [Specifically, this is PostLibyan's theory. Just making sure credit is given where credit is due! -- Brendan.] In that case I love the sloppiness of a good jangly depressed indie rock band because:

  1. I'm a control freak.
  2. My relationships are inevitably disasterous.

Furthermore, I am a concert junkie - I live to see music performed. To me, the recorded medium is secondary - I listen to most albums and think of how they translate to the stage. I realize this isn't fair to many bands, but hey, I'm allowed my opinion.

With all that said, when the new Death Cab for Cutie album was recommended to me, I bought it sight unseen. I wouldn't have recognized one of their songs if it had crawled up to me in a bar and started to gnaw on my ankles.

So I went home and popped it in (PING!) and sat back.

And I listened.

My first thought was, "hey these guys sound a lot like Modest Mouse."

Then I thought, "hey these guys belong on Kindercore."

And finally I thought, "That song sounds a lot like Crooked Fingers!"

So, in other words, yep, they're an indie rock band. They've got the slightly melancholy key changes and the delay heavy guitars. The singer writes about meeting up with former loves and not being invited places. And I can see myself standing in front of a stage bouncing my head as I mouth the lyrics.

In other words, I didn't hear anything that made me go "wow! I've never heard that before!" (See: Godspeed You Black Emperor!) but it's an enjoyable little album -- nothing that makes me go "what the hell were these freaks smoking!?" And on the best songs (such as Title Track or Company Calls), they measure up to best indie rock material out there.

 
         
 
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