Something About Airplanes

Barsuk Records and Death Cab for Cutie celebrate the 10th anniversary of the band's classic debut studio album with this deluxe reissue. Still considered by many fans to be DCfC's best album, but criminally unheard by many newer converts other than the handful of songs that remain staples of the band's live set (Amputations, Pictures In An Exhibition, Fake Frowns), Something About Airplanes is not just a document of a particular time in the band's history or of a bygone era of indie-rock it's an enduring work featuring some of the band's finest songs. Includes the band's first Seattle live show on a separate disc.

The first instrument you notice upon listening to Something About Airplanes is the cello on "Bend to Squares." It fades out, soon enough replaced by the familiar electric guitar, but it sets this album's offbeat mood. Experimentation and pop hooks strike a perfect balance on this debut from the Bellingham, Washington-based Death Cab for Cutie. The quartet follow in the fine tradition of area emo-pop bands like Modest Mouse, 764-HERO, and Built to Spill, but it's hard not to notice bits of Quasi and the Beatles popping up. Of course, the Death Cab formula is a bit different--"President of What?" is driven by Farfisa, not Fender; "Champagne from a Paper Cup" is a slow-burner--there's not much pop glee found in a song that begins "I think I'm Drunk Enough to Drive You Home Now"; and--every once in a while--the oddball vocal sample kicks in (presumably from a long-forgotten movie, a la vintage Jawbreaker). It all makes for a brilliant debut and a fine addition to the canon of Northwest emo-pop late-'90s style. --Jason Verlinde