Review - The Open Door EP

Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
Album: The Open Door ep
Record Label: Atlantic
Producer(s): Chris Walla
Release Date: March 31, 2009 (digital), April 14, 2009 (physical)
Genre: Indie Rock
Strong Points: Solid, enjoyable individual songs that incorporate everything that makes Death Cab one of the best Indie rock bands around.
Weak Points: None
Technical Score: A
Artistic Score: B+
Final Score (not an average): B+
Moral Warnings: Little Bribes describes the emptiness of Las Vegas, in one verse making a subtle reference to prostitution. One song, “I Once Was a Loyal Lover” is basically about what its title suggests.

With The Open Door EP, Death Cab adds one more to an already impressive collection of EPs (5 total), this one consisting of songs that didn’t match the overall feel of their latest studio album, Narrow Stairs. It’s short, containing 16 minutes of material total, but each song is an individual pleasure that holds strongly to the charming wit so often synonymous with Death Cab for Cutie.

The band lets their guns blaze right from the get-go with Little Bribes. It’s an irresistible, catchy, foot-tapping pop piece that immediately reminded me of The Sound of Settling from “Transatlanticism” and Crooked Teeth off of “Plans.” And though the music is more upbeat and pop-ish than normally associated with the band, the lyrics are wholly Gibbard, describing in poetic detail the glamor, yet ultimate emptiness, of Las Vegas: “You said this city has a beating heart/that pushes people down the boulevard/they’re all hoping for a wish fulfilled/in a desert for a dollar bill.”

From there, the album turns to very familiar territory. Both A Diamond and a Tether and I Once Was a Loyal Lover risk nothing in the band’s sound, nor do they particularly stretch Gibbard as a lyricist. But they’re enjoyable in their own right, and will likely be enjoyed particularly by fans of their older sound. Talking Bird is a demo from the Narrow Stairs album, and strips the song down to a ukulele and Gibbard’s voice. I’ll admit to not having been a big fan of the finished product, so I actually consider the stripped down version an improvement.

Along with Little Bribes, the third track, When My Mirror Speaks, is one of the songs that solidifies Death Cab for Cutie as one of the best indie rock bands around. Uptempo drums and an ever-so-slightly distorted guitar compliment Gibbard as he sings of the man that his mirror reveals: “I am standing face to face/with a man who hides/ from all that binds/in a mess of fading lines.” As always, his lyrics strike the listener as poetic and remarkably sincere, proving that he hasn’t lost his way with words over time.

The Open Door could be the best EP that Death Cab has released yet. It will more than please the band’s fans, and with its arrival nearly a year after Narrow Stairs, has enough lasting value to keep them content until their next album. Which still really can’t come soon enough.

Album highlights:
Little Bribes
My Mirror Speaks

-Zak Mellgren (zak@revolve21.com)