Death Cab for Cutie’s The Photo Album is a pretty mellow album as Indie Rock albums go. It starts slow, and continues to with it’s mellow theme of tracks, picking up on occassion, and then hitting the slow tunes again.

Lyrically the album is equally sedated, as the voice lingers across repetitive, almost derivative music that rarely seems to change. Some may call the music beautiful, I would say it’s a halfway house between that and boring.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a pleasent album, that’s probably nice to warm your socks to, or to enjoy a hot coffee with, but it’s not the sort of album you can call ground breaking or even interesting. Still, having said that, Gibbard’s voice is no less enchanting and charming, even over this tired album.

The Photo Album was my first introduction to Death Cab for Cutie, and since then I’ve listented to their other, far superior albums, which means that The Photo Album languishes at the bottom as far as favourite albums go. There’s nothing particularly amazing about it, and with only a few stand out tracks which themselves aren’t particularly special, there’s very little to recommend to the album.

There’s certainly worse out there, but as a third album goes, Gibbard has not only done better previously, but better after also. I wouldn’t by the album, but it’s worth listening to if you like your mellow indie. It’s just a rather average effort that doesn’t require more attention than it deserves, and it doesn’t deserve that much.

Verdict: A subpar, mostly dull album with a couple of interesting tracks. Save your money