Lyrically, Death Cab for Cutie are brilliant. They’re poetic, and yet somehow manage to steer clear of the clichéd ruins of over-done love songs. The extended metaphors present drag you into the songs, and seem to be ambiguous enough to relate to a wide audience, whilst being specific enough to tell a story.

Their songs seem to be made of something other bands simply do not possess. A style that’s soothing musically, but also interesting and at times quite up-beat. Melodically the guitars seem to come out of nowhere with hooks and chord progressions that will work their way into your mind, and drum beats like in "The Sound of Settling" that do likewise.

The audio quality of this live recording is top-notch. Especially since Death Cab for Cutie have authorised the distribution of their live recordings on http://www.archive.org, this is definitely worth checking out, for both fans of the band and people who haven’t heard them before.

Score: 7/10

Get it here. In case you’re unsure, scroll down to the section that says "Individual Files", then under the "Whole Items" section, you can download the whole performance. I strongly recommend the VBR Zip – 64kb/s is way too low to expect a good quality performance in my experience.