Death Cab for Cutie

Whether they're delivering wistful melancholy or rocked out melodrama, the Pacific Northwest's Death Cab for Cutie nail their musical colours to the mast of Ben Gibbard's emotive vocal, light touch with the heartstring, and instinctive feel for lyrical poetry. Formed in Washington State, 1997, the quartet juggled personnel before pulling out all the stop's with 2003's Transatlanticism.

Some of the band's early tracks illuminate our Next Steps.

Death Cab for Cutie's impressive debut album, Something About Airplanes (1998), holds the seeds of their current greatness, notably on "Line of Best Fit," which uses synth-played-backwards sounds to stunning effect. The thread of uplifting downbeats was picked up again on the follow-up, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (2000), a dreamlike indie rockscape featuring "Scientist Studies".

Death Cab covers a brace of British rock icons in Deep Cuts.

Among the various Death Cab treats we've gathered in the rare confection section of our Essentials playlist, there's the band's twitchy cover of the Smiths' "This Charming Man", as well as a couple of signature cuts from Ben Gibbard's electronica-based side project, the Postal Service. Stunning single "Such Great Heights" sits alongside the out-of-leftfield Phil Collins cover, "Against All Odds".

Sharp enough to build a mighty indie-pop underground following, yet ambitious enough to make the mainstream crossover via The OC, Death Cab for Cutie has more than enough up its sleeves to become one of the defining leftfield rock acts of the '00s. Even though frontman Ben Gibbard has achieved equal recognition for his work with the Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie has held a steadily inspiring course from its beginnings through their major label debut, Plans, and on to 2008's masterwork-to-date, Narrow Stairs, featuring the eight-minute-plus cut of "I Will Possess Your Heart". Lend them your ears.