Album of the day (#1292): Plans by Death Cab For Cutie - Music

albummaster
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Gender: Male
Location: Spain
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Today's album of the day

Plans by Death Cab For Cutie (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 2005.
Country:

Overall rank: 508
Average rating: 75/100 (from 217 votes).

Tracks:
1. Marching Bands of Manhattan
2. Soul Meets Body
3. Summer Skin
4. Different Names for the Same Thing
5. I Will Follow You into the Dark
6. Your Heart Is an Empty Room
7. Someday You Will Be Loved
8. Crooked Teeth
9. What Sarah Said
10. Brothers on a Hotel Bed
11. Stable Song

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

mickilennial
The Most Trusted Name in News

Gender: Female
Age: 35
Location: Detroit

If not for garbage like “I Will Follow You into the Dark” this would be more than stellar of a record, honestly. Whilst Ben Gibbard would play with more ambitious soundscapes on the next records after Plans this one is what I personally feel is their best record and perhaps their most heartfelt. This is one of the most nostalgic records for me on top of that as it reflects on my first moments learning to drive as it was always in my car CD player. I love this record.

HoldenM
To Pedantically Split Infinitives

Gender: Male
Age: 29

Shit yeah!!! I love this album so much. It came to me when I was in need, and it stayed long after I didn't need it anymore. It's still amazing to me, and I've only grown to love it. For an album so frequently demonized as somewhat of a corporate misfire, this is actually a terrifically dynamic and sincere album, which is a tall order for any collection of songs. No, it's not as musically ambitious as We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes--nor does it have the same imaginative lyricism as The Photo Album--yet it's still so irresistibly brilliant. Plans is such an influential album to me, and I can't imagine it not being in my life. Also, I will admit that I used some of the lyrics from "Stable Song" (even though they're originally from "Stability") as my senior quote. What can I say? I'm shameless.

Death Cab for Cutie? More like DEATH CAB FOREVER!!!!

Track picks
1. Marching Bands of Manhattan
3. Summer Skin
5. I Will Follow You into the Dark
6. Your Heart Is an Empty Room
9. What Sarah Said
10. Brothers on a Hotel Bed

Post script: I've also noticed that "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" is the most divisive track Death Cab has ever written, with the possible exception of "The Sound of Settling." Personally, I think it's a perfect song, with Gibbard at his lyrical best, and that the coda is genius and painstakingly profound. At the same time, I can understand that it may seem a little undercooked, a tad heavy-handed, and very corny. Everything about this song is off the cuff. "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" was written in a half-hour, and the recording on the album wasn't even meant to be on the album. So, maybe it comes down to the loose authenticity, or the half-assed approach that formed this track.
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benpaco
Who's gonna watch you die?

Age: 27
Location: California

I remember my first time hearing DCFC. 'Hey There Delilah' was the big hit, and 'Bad Day' was still making its run of neverending radio play. My dad heard "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" one day, and showed it to my family, as we'd all complained about how unfortunate "Hey There Delilah" was. We all liked it, but I was really curious what else they'd done. Poking around on an early version of youtube, one that most people (including us) only knew of because of OK Go, I found 1 other song by them, I think it was Stable Song. It was nice, but I couldn't find anything else by them on youtube, and I didn't have the money enough to buy the album or anything, so I kind of shrugged it off. I don't think I actually sat down and listened to this thing through and through until '11, when I first heard "You Are a Tourist". Someone had put all of Plans onto Youtube by then, so I listened.

I still revisit it more than almost any album (I think only FEFA, UP, Foiled and Deja have more plays on my computer).
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BrandonMiaow

Gowienczyk wrote:

If not for garbage like “I Will Follow You into the Dark” this would be more than stellar of a record, honestly.

Really? I've not heard this album but I really like that song.

mickilennial
The Most Trusted Name in News

Gender: Female
Age: 35
Location: Detroit

BrandonMiaow wrote:

Really? I've not heard this album but I really like that song.

To me it's Ben Gibbard's worst writing he's done in his entire career and it's the most cliche-ridden overly-sappy (and not written well either) song Death Cab have ever produced. I'm actually surprised it's divisive as every fan I've talked to of the band in depth have despised it as pandering garbage, but perhaps I'm being overtly oppositional to the idea.

If Gibbard has done one song that panders to 13 year old girls, it's this one.

BrandonMiaow

Gowienczyk wrote:

To me it's Ben Gibbard's worst writing he's done in his entire career and it's the most cliche-ridden overly-sappy (and not written well either) song Death Cab have ever produced. I'm actually surprised it's divisive as every fan I've talked to of the band in depth have despised it as pandering garbage, but perhaps I'm being overtly oppositional to the idea.

If Gibbard has done one song that panders to 13 year old girls, it's this one.

-_- Seriously with that last sentence? Ugh.
Anyways, I'm not gonna argue since it's just your opinion of the song but for fuck's sake what's with all the elitism and the condescension? It's pretty beautiful. It reminds me of that greek myth with the poor old couple who feed a disguised Zeus and either Hermes or Apollo and when the gods uncover themselves and thank the old couple and will grant them two wishes, one of their wishes is to die at exactly the same time so they don't have to go a minute without each other. Been a while since I read it (sixth grade?) so it is a bit paraphrased but still.

Edit: I realize I'm being kinda rude but your whole paragraph rubbed me the wrong way. XD Sorry though.

benpaco
Who's gonna watch you die?

Age: 27
Location: California

BrandonMiaow wrote:

Really? I've not heard this album but I really like that song.

Chec, out the album, I think you'd really like it. Especially "Different Names for the Same Thing"
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. . . 2016 . . . 2015 . . .

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HoldenM
To Pedantically Split Infinitives

Gender: Male
Age: 29

Gowienczyk wrote:

To me it's Ben Gibbard's worst writing he's done in his entire career and it's the most cliche-ridden overly-sappy (and not written well either) song Death Cab have ever produced. I'm actually surprised it's divisive as every fan I've talked to of the band in depth have despised it as pandering garbage, but perhaps I'm being overtly oppositional to the idea.

If Gibbard has done one song that panders to 13 year old girls, it's this one.

I think there are some songs that are honest and straightforward to a fault. "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" definitely skews as a song that wears its heart on its sleeve. The song is by no means subtle. Heck, it uses the "Earth Angel"/I-VI-IV-V structure. It seems that anyone who writes a song that is about romance--not even about love, but about the sensationalism of almost unstoppable euphoria--resorts to that chord pattern. I wouldn't call it lazy, but I would say that it falls under a category of songs that rely on a very specific tactic to work. Also, the Catholic school verse is something that, even though it's not nonsensical, adds a sort of asymmetry to the track. If Gibbard had spent more time with the song, that verse could have become something else. Heck, maybe the third or first verse would have become something else.

But like I said, I love "I Will Follow You Into the Dark." It's a song that has certainly become less meaningful, but whose refrain gets me every time. "If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks/Then I'll follow you into the dark." There's something about that phrase, that combination of words, that is so aesthetically appealing and fulfilling to me. It doesn't have to say "I love you, and nothing else matters but you." It says, to me, "If you will have me, then I will be there, and you won't have to be alone." Stephen King wrote something about the word "lonely"--that it was the dirtiest word in the English language, and that it was synonymous with hell. Personally, I like this philosophy, and I'm subsequently enamored by Gibbard's answer to it. I don't feel intellectually cheap if this appreciation is shared by a demographic with whom I share no real common ground. All I think is that Gibbard wrote a very direct, yet understated song that made sense to lots of people. There's no shame in that. Heck, I'll take it over any of the melodrama on an album like 21. Gibbard, to his credit, made a song that has a beginning, a middle, and (obviously) an end. He justifies his thoughts by constructing a world filled with context, with is life, as a way of mitigating the inevitable. Gibbard creates a thesis, and follows it with supporting claims and arguments. Most lyricists aren't so thoughtful, and with so much detail, Gibbard's declaration of companionship feels earned.

I don't mean to argue. I'm sure the other side of the coin is more vivid than I'm giving it credit for being, but like I said, I think the song works. Just saying why I think it does.
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Mercury
Turn your back on the pay-you-back last call

Gender: Male
Location: St. Louis

Yeah, I love this album. It's one of the most personally touching and important to me in my own life and one of the most nostalgic too. Well, I listened to just this for weeks when I was recently dumped, and when one of my best feigns a was dying of cancer. So songs on here cut deep and I actually have a hard time hearing this because of all the associative factors. But yeah it's a very nice record.

And "Soul Meets Body" is great. Very touching. "softly soaring through my atmosphere..." Awwwwweeee! And the production on it is so cool and kind of reminiscent of early R.E.M. Yeah, that song is a totally accessible, fun, sing along, indie rock/pop gem!

And "I Will Follow You into The Dark"? Yeah that's great too. Again I can't magically seperate this album from its time and place. So, that song was very close to me when I was 16 hearing it. And it's a nice song. Step!
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