Something About Airplanes
by Death Cab For Cutie

Something About Airplanes by Death Cab For Cutie
Year: 1998
Overall rank: 9,158th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
73/100 (from 96 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1998 (144th)
Award Top albums of the 1990s (1,474th)
Award Best albums of all time (9,158th)

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Death Cab For Cutie - Something About Airplanes - (Vinyl, LP, 180mg) (Mint (M))
Condition: New


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Something about Airplanes by Death Cab for Cutie (CD, 1998)
Condition: Like New


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Death Cab For Cutie – Something About Airplanes - LP Vinyl Record - NEW Sealed
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Death Cab For Cutie bestography

Something About Airplanes is ranked 10th best out of 17 albums by Death Cab For Cutie on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Death Cab For Cutie is Transatlanticism which is ranked number 448 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,771.

Death Cab For Cutie album bestography « Higher ranked (7,694th)
Thank You For Today
This album (9,158th)
Something About Airplanes
Lower ranked (40,255th) »
The Blue EP

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Something About Airplanes rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 9,158th | 1990s rank: 1,474th | 1998 rank: 144th

Something About Airplanes collection

Something About Airplanes ratings

Average Rating: 
73/100 (from 96 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 96 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
85/100
 
02/24/2026 00:58 evo  Ratings distribution  25872/100
 
95/100
 
12/12/2025 01:06 Kingturtle  Ratings distribution  7,57973/100
 
60/100
 
12/01/2025 16:00 Keatownrodriguez  Ratings distribution  1,48568/100
 
80/100
 
10/13/2025 14:35 AAL2014  Ratings distribution  3,84675/100
 
80/100
 
08/02/2025 01:07 Scrabbler  Ratings distribution  26477/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album has a Bayesian average rating of 73.1/100, a mean average of 71.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 73.2/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.1.

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Something About Airplanes favourites

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Something About Airplanes comments

Showing all 7 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
90/100
From 09/13/2023 01:11 | #299101
An album I've been underrating for a long time, but on balance, I love basically every song here--give or take their Revolutionary Hydra cover, which I still have a fondness for. While Death Cab's debut is often compared to their Pacific northwest indie contemporaries, there's a bookishness and sheen to their songs that set them apart, as well as a pop appeal that eludes most artists of their ilk while still maintaining immense feeling and intelligence.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 11/16/2019 13:19 | #244913
Indie alternative at its finest.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 09/10/2018 11:08 | #220868
Some fresh material from DCFC, quite enjoyable. 8/10.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 09/03/2017 06:51 | #197155
Their best album. Not yet being to into them selves, trying to hard not to try. Sounding to much of something smoth and irritating. It's not a major band in history but this album is most ok.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
10/100
From 05/04/2016 16:37 | #165191
First two Death Cab albums are junk, don't listen to the indie heads who get their rise out of finding obscure starts from popular bands.

Skip straight to The Photo Album if you want to get into Death Cab. Everything after is at least listenable at it's worst, unlike this pile of indie emo poorly produced garbage
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 11/15/2014 07:50 | #127022
Good debut, and some real classics, but they only went up from here.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 03/02/2013 02:34 | #66613
The sophomore album by this band out of Seattle. To me Death Cab is the kind of band that I enjoy when I'm listening to it, but then have very little desire to ever seek it out to listen to it again. I don't see how anyone could despise this band, but also don't see how this could be anyone's favorite band either.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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