...With The Open Door EP, Death Cab adds one more to an already impressive collection of EPs (5 total), this one consisting of songs that didn’t match the overall feel of their latest studio album, Narrow Stairs. It’s short, containing 16 minutes of material total, but each song is an individual pleasure that holds strongly to the charming wit so often synonymous with Death Cab for Cutie.
The band lets their guns blaze right from the get-go with Little Bribes. It’s an irresistible, catchy, foot-tapping pop piece that immediately reminded me of The Sound of Settling from “Transatlanticism” and Crooked Teeth off of “Plans.” And though the music is more upbeat and pop-ish than normally associated with the band, the lyrics are wholly Gibbard, describing in poetic detail the glamor, yet ultimate emptiness, of Las Vegas: “You said this city has a beating heart/that pushes people down the boulevard/they’re all hoping for a wish fulfilled/in a desert for a dollar bill”...
From the Open Door EP album review by Zak Mellgren
