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You Can Play These Songs With Chords

By: Death Cab For Cutie
Label: Barsuk
Released: 17 Sep 2007
RRP: £11.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Great, if a little inconsistant. - By: , 20 Jul 2004
This CD is comprised of the early Death Cab cassette 'You Can Play These Songs With Chords' & ten extra songs. Much of the original cassette was re-recorded & released again on 'Something About Airplanes', but three of the songs were not. Hindsight is a fairly solid song, but Two Cars & That's Incentive are better, & are excellent.

The extra material is more hit & miss. In particular TV Trays is incredibly bad (as Ben Gibbard seems to accept in the sleeve notes), & it's the only Death Cab song I actively dislike, & Flustered/Hey Tomcat! seems pretty pointless & a little self indulgent. Nevertheless, the better songs more than make up for this. State Street Residential, & Army Corps of Architects are particularly noteworthy. These are alll pretty downbeat compared to New Candles (the only DCFC song I've heard with Chris Wallla on lead vocals), a perky pop/punk-ish song which is similar to TV Trays while miraculously managing to be enjoyable. This Charming Man takes a similar style, & although I find it quite enjoyable, I'd imagine others would see this as heresy towards the original. Gibbards 'creative' interpretation of Morrisey's lyrics might also cause offense with some of Morrisey's more fanatical followers, but only those without a sense of humour.

All in alll a pretty inconsistant compilation, but worth it for the gems, & 18 songs for this price isn't bad either. If you are a fan, buy it. If not, I'd suggest starting with 'The Photo Album', or 'We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes'

short and cheerful - By: , 31 May 2004
this album owns you alll!
It's not just the perfect background noise for any situation but it demands attention & can make the saddest man remember when everything was better. With loops, jangly guitars, & the occasional Farfisa, DCFC craft a melodic backdrop for Benjamin Gibbard's cozy vocals.