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I Have The Facts And Vote Yes Every Time: A Love Letter to Death Cab for Cutie’s Sophomore Album

When I was around 11 years old, I learned from my older sister that a good way to get free music was to check CD’s out of the library and import them onto your home computer. I went through a phase where I would go to the library, check out every CD I saw by an artist I vaguely recognized, and then put all the albums on my iPod. While illegal and detrimental to the artists, this method was really how I broadened my music taste, and how I came across one of my all-time favorite albums--”We Have the Facts And We’re Voting Yes” by Death Cab for Cutie.

My first listens of “We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes” put it into my “boring” category, but I knew there was something about it that I liked. I distinctly remember listening to it to make myself fall asleep in sixth grade. How, then, has an album that I saw as a sedative when I was eleven remained at the top of my Recently Played list for the past 9 years?

First of all, We Have The Facts has the best flow of any album I have ever heard in my entire life. The songs ease together perfectly in a way that is almost hard to define; listening to the album on shuffle is incredibly jarring, but listening to it straight through, it’s barely discernible as to exactly when the songs change. It opens with Title Track, a steady lo-fi jam. The part where it picks up a bit--”I tried my best to keep my distance from your dress”--absolutely slaps, even though it obviously doesn’t slap.

That’s the thing about this whole album. None of it is necessarily that catchy, and on the surface, it can seem too mellow, boring, emo, whatever you want to call it. But dig a little deeper, and there are so many wonderful aspects just waiting to be heard. The hook on Lowell, MA can be stuck in my head for weeks and I won’t want it to go away. Company Calls is the most single-worthy and easily digestible song on the album, and there’s nothing wrong with that either. Company Calls Epilogue, though, is an absolute gem; listening to it on a long car ride or after smoking a joint (or both) will never fail to put me in a mood that is nostalgic, happy, and sad all at once.

The album ends with Scientist Studies, another utterly beautiful song that I could probably write a whole book about. It ends with a big gradual buildup, one that Death Cab has used frequently throughout their discography, most notably on I Will Possess Your Heart. This buildup is a bit shorter than their newer ones, more experimental, but it foreshadows their future as a band and is still enticing to listen to.

Altogether, “We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes” is my favorite Death Cab album. I really urge people who don’t listen to them as much, or only listen to “Plans” and/or “Codes and Keys”, to give it a solid 5 listens before making a judgment on it. Truly, any situation calling for slightly emo, atmospheric, low-key alternative jams would benefit from at least a song or two from this album.

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(via https://open.spotify.com/user/ellaedith/playlist/6WD7aapP45hZhbRLFFgAZM?si=ABeEasBKSp_xnZNQUwcJog)

Have you ever felt like, wow, I haven’t had to do homework in a while? So you check your planner and your class syllabuses and you realize that you actually have 27 things due in two days? This playlist is for locking yourself in the library for 12 hours at a time and crying into a textbook. The songs are generally atmospheric and if you’re not really paying attention, blend together, but if you need to tune out your homework for a couple minutes, every one of them is individually interesting when you focus on them, which in my opinion is what makes good study music.

Track list:

24/7 - The Neighbourhood //

405 - Death Cab for Cutie //

All Mine - Portishead //

Daddy Issues - The Neighbourhood //

Dre - Warpaint //

For What Reason - Death Cab for Cutie //

Glory Box - Portishead //

Infinity - The xx //

Love Out Of Lust - Lykke Li //

Marching Bands of Manhattan - Death Cab for Cutie //

No Surprises - Radiohead //

Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby - Cigarettes After Sex //

PPP - Beach House //

Shelter - The xx //

Silver Soul - Beach House //

Skeletons - Yeah Yeah Yeahs //

Talk Show Host - Radiohead //

Teardrop - Massive Attack //

Whiteout - Warpaint //

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(via https://open.spotify.com/user/ellaedith/playlist/4qhz2Vxlk2dr6pT7Y7mnQk?si=agQ3r58UTbqHol3_jVlBow)

Today when I was walking back from class I slipped and fell on my ass in the mud. The back of my coat, my backpack, and my entire butt were all filthy. The type of upset that I felt as I stood up and realized there were multiple people watching me was a feeling that I haven’t felt in a while, since usually when I do embarrassing things like that it’s not in broad daylight. I immediately was thrown back to that time in fifth grade when I did the exact same thing, except i was 10 and not 19. This made me think about the defining feature of my 5th grade career--my obsession with The Fray. So, I decided to throw together a nostalgia playlist of mid-late 2000’s alternative throwbacks that remind me of feeling sad about my first crush, graduating elementary school, and missing bible camp. Hope it’s as enjoyable to listen to as it was to make it!

Track list:

Hanging By A Moment - Lifehouse // 

How You Remind Me - Nickelback // 

Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray // 

She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5 // 

Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol // 

Iris - The Goo Goo Dolls // 

It’s Not Over - Daughtry // 

Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down // 

Sick Cycle Carousel - Lifehouse // 

Say When - The Fray // 

Clocks - Coldplay // 

Disarray - Lifehouse // 

Look After You - The Fray // 

I’ll Be - Edwin McCain // 

Hey There Delilah - Plain White T’s // 

Fall Away - The Fray // 

This Love - Maroon 5 // 

Speed Of Sound - Coldplay // 

Use Somebody - Kings Of Leon // 

First Time - Lifehouse // 

Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day // 

Viva La Vida - Coldplay //

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Spotify Singles Review

It’s been a whole 5 years since Yeah Yeah Yeahs dropped their last album, Mosquito. For diehard YYY fans, such as myself, Mosquito was a bit of a disappointment. The songs didn’t quite match the emotional depths reached in Show Your Bones nor the innovations made in It’s Blitz!. A return to YYY’s usual style was made and appreciated, but on the whole Mosquito felt like a sign that YYY were ending, and that it was probably for the best.

Until today, when they dropped two singles on Spotify. Two live recordings--one of their most famous song, Maps, and a cover of Big Star’s Thirteen.

The recording of Maps sounds just like all their other recordings of Maps. Nothing is different, which is truly not a bad thing. It shows their consistency. Maps was released 15 years ago, and this recording proves it can still sound fresh that much later.

The cover of Thirteen is different. The style of it matches the original recording by Big Star. Karen O’s gentle singing is reminiscent of her solo album, Crush Songs, released in 2014, and the acoustic versions of Hysteric and Soft Shock from It’s Blitz. On the whole, it is a restrained and beautiful reminder of the sound YYY can achieve.

Overall, the release of these two recordings is a wonderful tease for longtime Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans, and a reminder that they still exist.