One of the great problems with "indie rawk" is how simple it is for a band to come out of nowhere and all of a sudden seem like a savior — even if its ideas all stem from the same old shit. Death Cab For Cutie's debut, Something About Airplanes, could have been a fluke, another band who added a numeral or two to the usual Built to Spill formula in order to make an impression on a bored public

So out comes the sophomore effort, confidently titled We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes, and (me being easily swayed) I put in my ballot of approval.

So what makes DCFC important? For one thing, Ben Gibbard's lyrics make photos as vivid as Elliott Smith's and, like Smith, manages to say so much more than the average Sebadoh lonely-isms. His delivery is rather plain, but lines such as "You'll discover that casual friends kept notes in their pockets to remember your name / And all these places we went to see sights just gave them excuses to get into the game" (from the possible Dinosaur Jr. tribute "Little Fury Bugs") seem meant for Gibbard's simple, scenestar-wary voice.

This is music that is not bored with itself — by comparison, the new Pedro the Lion CD sounds too afraid to rock, maybe even too embarrassed. As said before, the most natural melodic comparison is Built to Spill, even though DCFC doesn't have a maestro like Doug Martsch behind the strings. Instead, the band makes up for it with inventive production and gets a lot of different sounds out of its songs, from the mid-fi airiness of "405 to the great indie-rawk-by-the-numbers "Company Calls."

Much like Gibbard's solo project, All-Time Quarterback, DCFC sounds like everything else, but something shines through. Bonus points go to an album that doesn't try and outdo itself and, therefore, has minimal drag time.

- John Meyerriecks