I came to this album with fresh ears, meaning I had never heard Death Cab For Cutie, or Dntel. In fact, I'd never heard anything by either of them. I happened to stumble upon this one day on Pandora.After reading all the rave reviews and hearing a few samples I bought the album.The first time I listened I thought "Ehh, it's okay. Not sure what all the hype is about."Then I found the songs stuck in my head. So I listened again.. and again.. and, well now I am listening to this album every single day.It is quite simply an intelligent, innovative, original and flat out fun album. Highlights include "We Will Become Silhouettes" and "Nothing Better" and "Brand New Colony". The atari-like bass in "Nothing Better" is sort of weird and almost annoying at first but like the rest of the album it works its way into your brain and eventually you end up loving the way it meshes so perfectly with Ben's voice.The weakest tracks are "This Place Is A Prison" and "Sleeping In". The former is just boring, the latter would be OK but the lyrics are a little pretentious.
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