Best Laid Plans

Death Cab for Cutie's new cd- Plans- is ok. It saddens me to write that. On first listen I was thinking 'Excellent work, couple more listens and it'll be album of the year'. A couple more listens later, and it strikes me that Death Cab have gone for the charts at exactly the time in their career when they would have attracted more attention by turning their backs on sales.

Their core fan base would have been enough to push it into the Bright Eyes territory of 'only the cool people have heard of it, but everyone's going to like it once they've heard it because it's actually so accessible' (exactly where another Photo Album would have left them). The production is so polished that it's hard to hear a human being on the album at all, and in some songs they've gone a bit too far down Snow Patrol Avenue for my liking.

That said- 'Soul Meets Body' is the best New order song that New Order didn't write (and can't anymore)- well worth checking out here. Otherwise, go to Tilly and the Wall, click 'enter site, click on 'music' and download Walking on Snow's new ineluctable favourite 'Sad Sad Song'...

Looking forward- a review will be forthcoming on Belle and Sebastian's Barbican gig- where they will play If You're Feeling Sinister from start to finish (hopefully some other stuff too, otherwise I'll be travelling the length of Britain for a 35 min set).

And, of course, the indomitable, the transcendent, default-damager-power-to-the-people Jandek's second Arches gig will be given due reverence and veneration.

And while we're completely off topic, I thought this was great (and it's safe for work...)