Death Cab For Cutie Plans Release Date : August 30, 2005. Label: Atlantic. Rating: Andy doesn't dig rating stuff. This is just plain sad. There's nothing else to it. Just as Death Cab always was, it's a sad, sombre, lost album. It's filled with love, but a sad love, a lost love, a promise of love not yet seen, or a love taken away. It leaves me with little to no comfort, no matter what state of mind i'm in. But it's also immeasuarebly beautiful. This band has just gotten better and better through the years, refining their brand of heart-stressing indie-emo until they have become the undeniable masters of the genre. Hey, if The OC says so, it must be true, right? They can make simple moments of voice and one instrument soar. They can bring in mountains of layers of sounds and make it soar. They can string up just one pining vocal and make it soar. They can say words and make it soar. They hit you with a piano key and make you halt. Those lyrics - the images they create are so true and real and soft. Dammit, it's just really really sad. There are no 'maybe's on this record. Your love IS going to drown. Someday you WILL be loved. I KNEW your heart I couldn't win. Someday you WILL die. I recently passed on attending a DCFC show because I honestly didn't think I would survive the experience, and I hold true to that. It must have been incredible, but I would have simply disappeared in a pool of sorrow and never returned. Shoot, I'm emo. I can barely take this album alone - and sure, that's me throwing a personal spin on it, but that's what music is supposed to do anyhow, isn't it? Sorry to all, I have not yet become a robot in this industry. This whole disc is such an experience, it's challenging to pull it apart into individual songs and analyze which ones are worth more than which others. They all complete eachother - it's like a relationship. The music is incredible, the drifting sweetness of it, the languid coldness, like a drowning. It's peaceful, yet panicky at the same time. But again, the main point here is about the experience this album gives you. It's just an emotional trip. I dare you to not feel something when just listening to the music, and I triple dog dare you to not feel anything if you put yourself in a dim room and listen to the lyrics closely. Song of choice : "Someday You'll Be Loved" is the favourite, and again, probably just because it makes far too much sense, but it's the most honest song as well. An attempt at comforting someone who feels like he/she really lost out - which means it's no comfort at all but at least he/she gets the news straight up instead of wondering what's going on. Excuse me please, I must have something in my eye...       -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Death Cab For Cutie website Published : November, 2005.