Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie's Forbidden Love EP is not, strictly speaking, an acoustic album. But in comparison to the group's recent We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yeslong player, it's a stripped-down affair of varying degrees. The opener, "Photobooth," rides a simple drumbeat and playful bass line with guitar and keyboard quietly brushing color across the minimalist canvas. Songwriter/vocalist Benjamin Gibbard's voice is subdued but remains the central focus throughout the disc, whether emoting vitriolic sentiment or detailing the intricacies of romance, as on "Technicolor Girls," a wash of chiming melody and ingenuous circular rhythms.

Death Cab for Cutie: Pure pop simplicity.

Details

Scheduled to perform on Saturday, February 10, with the Jealous Sound, and the And/Ors. Showtime is 9 p.m.

Green Room in Tempe

Related Content

• Incoming: Death Cab For Cutie, Good Old War, Portugal. The Man, Eddie Vedder and More
  January 24, 2012
• Last Night: Death Cab for Cutie at Comerica Theatre
  August 16, 2011
• Dntel
  August 25, 2011
• What Your New Year's Eve Songs Say About You
  December 29, 2011
• Five Songs To Christmas Light Your House To
  November 30, 2011

More About

• Death Cab for Cutie
• Kelly Huckabee
• Ben Gibbard

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Death Cab can alternately be symphonic or crunching, as on "Song for Kelly Huckabee," the most ornate track on Forbidden Love. It's also the last new song on the EP; the final two cuts are alternate versions of a pair of We Have the Factsnumbers -- an ethereal acoustic redux of "405" that, were it a tad more effeminate, would fall squarely in the category of twee, and a spaced-out, reverbed take on "Company Calls Epilogue," arguably the best song in the band's canon. Given a choice between the two versions of the song, the EP incarnation is far superior, as it reveals yet another side of a band that has no shortage of angles or directions.

Maturing at a quickened pace (the span of time between the album and the new EP was mere months), Death Cab for Cutie has become one of the premier acts in pop music. Unlike many of its brethren, the group's diversity and delivery prevent it from being pigeonholed into any of the genre flavors of the minute -- it's not emo, it's not twee, it's not indie rock. Think of it as music you could sit and enjoy with your family, pure pop simplicity that knows no generational/gender/genre boundaries.