I don’t think that Death Cab became a “bad” band by any means – I still think they’ve got something to contribute, and it completely ruffles my feathers when people brush them off as just another emo band or yuppie band, etc. It’s just that, personally, I found the music harder to connect with as they began pigeon-holing themselves. It’s not that it’s not good, it just doesn’t feel as pained and passionate to me. Look at the contrast of “Stability” and “Stable Song.” I understand why they re-did it, but “Stable Song” doesn’t come close to holding a candle to the original – part of that’s because the band was breaking up when they recorded “Stability” and were just fucking ANGRY, but “Stable Song” sounds like they couldn’t muster any emotion for it, which is sad considering how many emotions that song must have unearthed. Overall, that was my biggest problem with Plans – where’s the passion? Even in their slowest, most somber tracks on the first couple albums, there was an underlying fire, an underlying tension that made the music so exciting. Sure, there are the usual trappings of early albums – although I would debate with you on how “intentional” the “poor mixing and mastering” is. I can’t possibly imagine that Chris Walla would have allowed any intentionally poor work done on their albums, I would venture to assume that he’s far too much of a perfectionist for that. It just feels like some of the fire is gone (less in the case of Transatlanticism than Plans), and I’m hoping that it comes back.

Firstly, might I say I think you know how silly it is to bemoan the success of a band you love. We’ve all been there, experiencing the joys of hearing that band on the radio for the first time and the woes of fighting the prepubescent crowd at the shows two months later. But good bands are not meant to be kept in our pockets. And our personal experiences – our emotional interaction with the music – honestly has nothing to do with the fanbase’s exclusivity.

At least it shouldn’t.

I’m not an age-old, there-from-the-beginning Death Cab for Cutie fan. But I’m not a bandwagon jumper either. I discovered a few tracks from Transatlanticism once upon a time – I don’t know when and I don’t know how – and simply fell in love. I tripped, tumbled head-over-heals for its sweeping, orchestral sounds and the lyrics, simple and poetic. It was years later that I discovered Plans. This year, in fact. And I couldn’t stop listening to the album for a month straight. It’s become my happy place.

Naturally, after re-discovering them I began searching for the rest of DCfC’s catalogue. I finally got my hands on their old albums, and I was… rather disappointed. It was rife with pretentious indie trappings: backing vocals that were dissonantly out of synch with the lead, awkward chord progressions, unbalanced arrangements, and intentionally poor mixing and mastering.

I agree that they’ve pigeon-holed a bit in terms of their sound, but musically they are far and away a much better band that all those years ago. Hopefully they can entwine their previous experimentation and their new-found refinement. That would truly be the best of both worlds.