You Can Play These Songs with Chords

Last updated
You Can Play These Songs with Chords
Death Cab for Cutie - You Can Play These Songs With Chords.jpg
Demo album by
Released1997
RecordedMay–July 1997 (original)
November 1996 – January 2000 (reissue)
Genre Indie rock
Length30:05
Label Barsuk [1]
Producer Ben Gibbard
Death Cab for Cutie chronology
You Can Play These Songs with Chords
(1997)
Something About Airplanes
(1998)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic 65/100 [2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Almost Cool6.5/10 [4]
Billboard (positive) [5]
Dusted Magazine(positive) [6]
Pitchfork 6.4/10 [7]
PopMatters Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [8] [2]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Stylus Magazine C [10]

You Can Play These Songs with Chords is an early (1996-97) demo from the rock band Death Cab for Cutie, which at the time consisted entirely of founder Ben Gibbard. This demo was originally released on cassette by Elsinor Records. It proved so popular, Gibbard recruited other musicians to make a full band, which would go on to record Something About Airplanes , the band's debut studio album.

Contents

You Can Play These Songs with Chords was expanded with ten more songs and re-released on October 22, 2002, through Barsuk Records on the heels of the success of The Photo Album .

Track listing

Original release

All songs written by Benjamin Gibbard.

No.TitleLength
1."President of What?"4:06
2."Champagne from a Paper Cup"2:34
3."Pictures in an Exhibition"4:02
4."Hindsight"3:47
5."That's Incentive"2:13
6."Amputations"4:03
7."Two Cars"3:31
8."Line of Best Fit"5:49

Re-issue additional tracks

All songs written by Benjamin Gibbard, Nick Harmer and Christopher Walla except as otherwise noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."This Charming Man" Johnny Marr, Morrissey 2:14
2."TV Trays" 4:02
3."New Candles" 3:02
4."Tomorrow" 2:17
5."Flustered/Hey Tomcat!" 2:56
6."State Street Residential" 5:51
7."Wait"Secret Stars [11] 3:34
8."Prove My Hypotheses" 4:11
9."Song for Kelly Huckaby" (Facts version) 3:51
10."Army Corps of Architects" 4:43

Personnel

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References

  1. "Discography". Death Cab For Cutie. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
  2. 1 2 Critic reviews at Metacritic
  3. AllMusic review
  4. Almost Cool review
  5. Billboard review
  6. Duster Magazine review
  7. Pitchfork Media review
  8. PopMatters review
  9. Rolling Stone review
  10. Stylus Magazine review
  11. "The Secret Stars - Wait". Discogs . 1995.