Plans by Death Cab for Cutie

Plans, Death Cab for Cutie's fifth album, came out on Atlantic on August 30, 2005, and it's the sound of a cult indie band stepping onto the big stage without raising its voice. The group had risen out of the Pacific Northwest earlier in the decade after a long run with Barsuk; now they made the jump to a major, and for the first time they left their Seattle home to record, setting up at Long View Farm, a rural spread in Massachusetts.

What they brought back is hushed, layered and gently glowing, the textured indie rock and confessional lyrics that built their following, polished just enough to carry across a bigger room. "Soul Meets Body" bobs along on a bright, hopeful melody, "Crooked Teeth" is the closest thing here to a sprint, and "I Will Follow You into the Dark" is a quiet ballad that became the band's best-loved song.

Plans took them into the mainstream: top five on the Billboard 200, a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, another for "I Will Follow You into the Dark" in the pop duo-or-group vocal category, and platinum certification in 2008.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.