Musical Style
Death Cab for Cutie's music has been labeled indie rock, indie pop, emo, and alternative rock. Death Cab for Cutie's early work on You Can Play These Songs with Chords was described by Rolling Stone as "emotion through its lack of emotion". Pitchfork Media also remarked that the work on the cassette was "ultra-lo-fi". On Something About Airplanes the band's style remained similar, with some new instrumental work introduced; "flute, synth, or cello" were noted by Allmusic's Nitsuh Abebe. On We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes the band again expanded their use of unorthodox instruments, including organ and glockenspiel. Pitchfork Media called them a "gentle niche" in the current rock climate, compared with bands such as Modest Mouse and Built to Spill.
Rolling Stone reviewed Transatlanticism and commented that it contained "melodic, melancholy songs about feeling both smart and confused, hopelessly romantic but wary of love." Gibbard's voice was described as "plaintive boy-next-door" Entertainment Weekly commented on the music on Plans, saying "The lush arrangements are long on hothouse organs and pianos, but short on the squirmy guitars and squirrelly beats that, on Gibbard's best work, offset his sweet voice and borderline-maudlin poetics with a sense of emotional danger." The band's music on Plans was described by the Dallas Morning News as "a literate, whispery style, the kind of stuff that normally sounds better in headphones than in large venues".
In an interview with Shave Magazine, Ben Gibbard commented on his song writing saying that he "never sit down to write an album number one. I just kind of sit down and write songs and the theme kind of makes itself apparent. But I would never say I was writing about searching for something as much as just trying to document with every song where I am in that moment when I’m writing that song. If a theme kind of makes itself apparent in a record, it has more to do with the fact that just what’s been on my mind recently. So I guess clearly I have been and was and am, but it was never a conscious decision."
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