Track Listing

1. Little Bribes
2. Diamond and a Tether
3. My Mirror Speaks
4. I Was Once a Loyal Lover
5. Talking Bird [Demo Version]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5747 in Music
• Released on: 2009-04-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: EP
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

A good, old fashioned bit of Death Cab
Made up of songs from the Narrow Stairs sessions that didn't make the final cut, it would be unfair to think of what's here as castoffs. Aside from the fact that they possibly didn't fit the mood or sequencing of that record, they appear to have been left off for being too much like archetypal Death Cab songs. On an album where the band seemed to be setting out to break new ground, they possibly feared these cuts may seem too much like retreads. Luckily, they're also up to the standards of that previous work. Fans of the band's first five albums will find much to love here.

Opener Little Bribes is as bright and uptempo as the poppiest things they've done, (The Sound of Settling, Crooked Teeth, etc.) upbeat despite Ben Gibbard's jaundiced observations on Vegas. The semi-acoustic A Diamond and a Tether would have fit nicely onto Plans, wheras the angular guitars and tight rhythmic interplay on My Mirror Speaks and I Was Once Was A Loyal Lover recall The Photo Album.

I have to give props to Gibbard's lyrics once again; he captures the compromises and dissappointments of ageing as well as any lyricist I can think of, especially for a guy who seems to be generally perceived as making somehow adolescent music - largely due to the often pejorative 'emo' tag Death Cab get labelled with.

The EP ends with a heartbreaking rendition of Talking Bird, with Gibbard on vocal and ukelele, which provides the sole real signpost to it's parent album's content. I would recommend this as a purchase to Death Cab fans old and new, just not as a sampler of what to expect from their most recent full length.