You Can Play These Songs with Chords
Demo album by
Death Cab for Cutie
Released 1997
Recorded May–July 1997 (original)
November 1996 – January 2000 (reissue)
Genre Indie rock
Length 30:05
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
Source Rating
Metacritic 65/100[2]
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic StarStarHalf star[3]
Almost Cool 6.5/10[4]
Billboard (positive)[5]
Dusted Magazine (positive)[6]
Pitchfork 6.4/10[7]
PopMatters StarStarStarStarStarStarStar[8][2]
Rolling Stone StarStarStar[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.

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. Title Length
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. Title Writer(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

References

  1. ^ "Discography". Death Cab For Cutie. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Critic reviews at Metacritic
  3. ^ AllMusic review
  4. ^ "Almost Cool review". Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  5. ^ Billboard review
  6. ^ Dusted Magazine review
  7. ^ Pitchfork Media review
  8. ^ PopMatters review
  9. ^ Rolling Stone review
  10. ^ "Stylus Magazine review". Archived from the original on May 10, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  11. ^ "The Secret Stars - Wait". Discogs. 1995.