One aspect of The Open Door EP that Death Cab for Cutie definitely got right was that none of its songs would have fit well on the band’s latest full-length, Narrow Stairs. With that idea in mind, though, is an EP full of b-sides even worth putting together? A song like “Photobooth,” for example, made sense on The Forbidden Love EP because it had no place on We Have the Facts; it still offered an interesting peek into where the band could head next, and it worked as a one-off.
Meanwhile, nothing on the Open Door stands alone: “Little Bribes” finds the band embracing clichéd blues tropes; Neko Case could have written “A Diamond and a Tether” in her sleep and then would have promptly forgotten it upon waking up. The demo of “Talking Birds” only serves as a reminder of the unfortunate, minimalist treatment the song received on Narrow Stairs. In short, there are no pleasant surprises on The Open Door, and its replay value suffers as a result.
A mediocre EP is nothing new coming from the band, though: the jury’s still out on whether The Open Door or 2002’s The Stability EP is the better soporific.
