Review of You Can Play These Songs With Chords (Death Cab For Cutie)

The title of the recording refers to two possible recordings. The original recording was released in 1997, featuring only Ben Gibbard (Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano), as a demo. This demo was then re-released in 2002 by the members of Death Cab For Cutie after their successful album The Photo Album. With the original songs of the demo were ten more tracks by Death Cab For Cutie, adding Christopher Walla (Vocals, Guitar), Nicholas Harmer (Bass) and Nathan Good (Drums, Tambourine) to the mix. I'll be reviewing 2002 release.

This album has a few strengths, the first of which is Ben Gibbard's notable talents. The first eight songs feature him and only him, and they are excellent considering the demo nature of the recording. Songs like "Champagne From A Paper Cup" and "Hindsight" show skilled song-writing through simple music and well-crafted lyrics. The low-fi nature of this half of the recording appeals to me quite a bit, as it shows the strengths of the musician and not the producer. The other thing I really love about this album is the flip that occurs when we leave the demo and enter the bonus tracks. It's not often you can hear in one recording the growth of a group of musicians, and you can hear it here.

Some of the songs on the newer part of the album, such as "TV Trays" and "New Candles" are a little dull, but these incidences are uncommon enough that's it not hard to listen through the album to hear the good ones. There's one really odd song, called "Flustered/Hey Tomcat!" which involves many production-based effects that warp spoken words. I'm still not quite sure what to think about it, but if you like that kind of thing, you'll probably like this too.

Personally, I really like this album for the low-fi demo tracks and the experience of time-travel you get by leaping into more mature Death Cab music, and that's why you should listen to it.