All Time Quarterback

Editor's Review:

Death Cab For Cutie fans, heads up. A little while back, Barsuk records re-released a compilation of DCFC singer / guitarist Ben Gibbard's solo material. This charming, all-too-brief 11-track album is packed with lo-fi gems, most self-penned in 1999. Some tracks are recorded with kiddy instruments, old keyboards, slightly out of tune electric guitars and drum loops, while others are simply acoustic guitar and voice, recorded straight into a walkman. Gibbard's punchy and occasionally self-deprecating lyrics reveal a tender side of the good-humored songwriter without coming off as merely begging for sympathy or indie pop-retarded. Standout tracks include "Empire State," an untitled song (track #6) and "Plans Get Complex," with the latter including an amusing homemade video that parodies the British affinity for and cultural acceptance of pornography. Entirely lovely.
- Maurice S. Teilmann

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Record Label Barsuk Records Released September 2002

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