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Death Cab For Cutie - The Open Door [EP]
| Avclub |
| It’s a testament to Death Cab For Cutie’s continuing creative peak that even the band’s leftovers still sound pretty great—and they even flow together nicely. The Open Door EP gathers the crumbs from the Narrow Stairs sessions, and the connective tissue among them seems to be that they’re jauntier and more rocking than the tracks that made the album. That leaves plenty of room for Ben Gibbard’s not-so-secret weapon: melancholy wrapped in snap-along, hummable songs. “Little Bribes” describes lonely people kissing in a casino town, and “My Mirror Speaks” speeds on a martial beat, but describes a typically sad type, complete with Gibbard’s often-great lyrics about loss. Same with the wonderfully fuzzy “I Was Once A Loyal Lover” (haters will have a field day with that title, but Death Cab makes it work), which sounds almost unfinished, like old-school DCFC, but is all the better for it. A demo version of Stairs’ “Talking Bird” stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the tracks, and it’s mostly for diehards: It’s simply Gibbard and a ukulele getting extra-wistful. None of these songs would’ve found a great home on Narrow Stairs, but taken together, they make a worthy addition to a solid catalog....full text |
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| Pastemagazine |
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Though The Open Door is an extension of Narrow Stairs (the five songs were recorded with the Narrow Stairs set but didn't make it onto the final album), the EP hums with an electricity all its own. As the title suggests, The Open Door is full of fresh air, wide spaces and rollicking melodies—a welcome change from the tangled Big Sur woods and claustrophobia of Narrow Stairs. "Little Bribes" throws the doors wide with Chris Walla's blues-fueled licks that alternatively melt into reverb and dance off in detailed frets. Gibbard's first line, "The Eiffel Tower built to smaller scale, the freshest oxygen I ever inhaled," floats atop the scorching riffs. While Narrow Stairs began with descent ("I descended a dusty gravel ridge"), The Open Door begins atop a tower. But from such a vantage point, there's no place to go but down. "A Diamond and A Tether," despite it's light, airy melody, descends into Gibbard's own personal brand of paranoia, Thom Yorke-like in its intensity. "Pity, take pity on me, cause I'm not half the man that I should to be" sings Gibbard, introducing the On the Road tension from Narrow Stairs again; the bonds of commitment versus the freedom of a Kerouac-esque lifestyle. On the next track, Gibbard croons, "I always fall in love with an open door...'till I look around at those who are standing right in front of me." The album fades out with Narrow Stairs' "Talking Bird" and the tension of home vs. freedom stretched to a snapping point, underscored by a quiet guitar lilt: "It's all here for you, as long as you don't fly away..."...full text |
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| Allmusic |
| Arriving one year after the release of Narrow Stairs, the five-song Open Door EP pairs four abandoned tracks from the Narrow Stairs sessions with a ukulele-helmed demo of "Talking Bird." Although it's certainly a stopgap recording -- released just before the bandmates' final tour in support of Narrow Stairs, and intended to maintain their popularity throughout the subsequent retreat to the recording studio -- Open Door is also a strong display of Death Cab's literate, poetry-major pop, with fast tempos and bright melodies that sometimes contrast Narrow Stairs' autumnal moments. These once-discarded tracks don't sound any less tuneful than the band's recent output; "Little Bribes," in particular, could have bumped a lesser song off of the Narrow Stairs track list with its power pop bounce, while "My Mirror Speaks" wields a winsomely ascending chorus that finds Ben Gibbard reaching into his falsetto. Such tunes may not have suited the bittersweet beauty of Stairs, but they're quite good in their own right, making The Open Door EP something more than a fans-only release. The only arguable misstep is the demo version of "Talking Bird" (the only song to appear on Narrow Stairs, albeit in different form), whose bare-boned arrangement lacks the shifting dynamics of Death Cab's best material....full text |
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