Death Cab for Cutie - The Forbidden Love EP
(Barsuk)
Fresh off the heels of their fantastic album, We Have the Facts and We're
Voting Yes, a concept album about a heartbreakingly doomed relationship
and some of the best indie rock released since that sort of music lost its
direction, here comes the long-awaited companion cash-in EP, The Death Cab
for Cutie Forbidden Love EP. Cha-ching! "You loved the LP, now throw us
some more money for some rejects and toss-offs!!"
The big insult here is "Technicolor Girls," a painfully slow, painfully
simple song built mostly around solo guitar with the life-affirming message
that shallow, popular high school girls are, well, shallow. Not as insulting
but equally unsatisfying is "Photobooth." While as the songs on the band's
last LP were complex both lyrically and sonically, "Photobooth" seems
straightforward and underdeveloped, with a clean simple sound, telling a
simple story of lust that never turned into love. No interesting production,
no poetic, cryptic musings, no fun. Compared to those two tracks, "Song for
Kelly Huckaby" is a blast, a stark contrast to the previous two songs with a
chunky rock guitar and atmospheric synthesizer sounds.
The other two songs on the EP are alternate versions of songs from We Have the
Facts. Both are pretty recordings, no doubt, but neither lend any real insight
or variation to the songs. "401" is your standard acoustic four track demo
version of the original. The production of the EP version of "Company Calls
Epilogue" gives the song an interesting new sound, echoed as if in a high
school auditorium, making the vocals (the climax to the LP) forefront and clear.
Separated from the LP, the lyrics of these songs are less powerful, but
diehards (if there are any yet) will "need" these alternate takes.
And that is the sum total of this EP. A few more albums like We Have the
Facts, and I no doubt will be among the legions of Death Cab diehards. They're
not there yet, though, and Watery, Domestic this is not. The Forbidden Love
EP is all about tossing fans a bone, not releasing a small stellar collection
of songs.
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