Plans is the fifth studio album by American rock band Death Cab for Cutie, released August 30, 2005 on Atlantic Records.

[1] Emerging from the Pacific Northwest in the early 2000s, Death Cab first rose to prominence on the strength of its confessional lyricism and textured indie rock sound.

Plans propelled the band into the mainstream, reaching the top five of the Billboard 200 and scoring a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album.

The third single "I Will Follow You into the Dark" became the band's most popular song to date, also garnering a Grammy nod for the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

[2][3] Death Cab for Cutie emerged in the early aughts out of the Pacific Northwest independent music scene, spearheaded by singer-songwriter Ben Gibbard.

Gibbard recruited bassist Nick Harmer and guitarist/producer Chris Walla to record the band's early demos, and shuffled through drummers before adding Jason McGerr on the kit in 2003.

"[10] Harmer agreed: "It really didn't change the way we worked creatively, but there certainly was enough psychological pressure that was kind of soaking in and seeping in, and I think we were carrying a lot of that stuff around with us, whether we knew it then or not.

Founded three decades prior by a Clark University professor,[14][15] Long View was a popular facility at the time, utilized by other indie artists such as LCD Soundsystem and Brand New to track their albums.

Its rural location led Gibbard to joke that it was "the kind of place a label sends a band if the singer's a junkie and they need to get him away from the bad things in the city."

[16] The band aimed to remain frugal with Atlantic's "sizable" budget, only taking advantage of the opportunity to re-record certain instruments after the fact.

[12] Vocals and mixing were completed at a later date in Seattle,[12] with additional recording taking place at Avast!, Robert Lang Studios, the Hall of Justice and Skrocki there.

Other pieces of equipment frequently utilized included a Millennia HV-3D 8-channel microphone preamplifier, and the Lexicon Varispeech, a digital pitch shifter, which Walla used to enhance drum sounds, particularly snare hits.

[27] Jonah Bayer of Alternative Press stated that Plans "seamlessly picks up right where 2003's Transatlanticism left off" and praised its "cinematic" scope.

Club's Josh Modell wrote that the band "wears grandiosity with grace, miniaturizing and polishing big, broad moments into tiny triumphs that, like audible illusions, feel simultaneously intimate and huge.

"[39] David Turnbull of musicOMH deemed Plans to be "an album of progression that is likely to win the band plenty of new fans, but it shouldn't alienate their fanbase either.

"[40] Rhyannon Rodriguez, writing for Kludge, regarded the album as "a melodically mellow masterpiece" which expresses the "absolute epitome of this generation's pop.

"[29] In a mixed assessment, Betty Clarke of The Guardian felt that Plans was at times "unconvincing", but that when Gibbard "wrestles with big questions in smaller ways, he makes magic.

"[31] While contending that Plans "doesn't differ radically from the previous four" Death Cab for Cutie albums, Q felt that Transatlanticism was a "more cohesive" effort.

[36] The NME wrote that the album was "produced within an inch of its shiny, whitebread life and the Cutie seem to have lost their faux-naive subtleties, becoming the non-thinking man's Coldplay along the way",[34] while Uncut opined that the band's "failure to shift pace from a relentlessly wistful chug makes for an oddly exhausting listening experience.

"[42] Nick Sylvester of The Village Voice wrote that "Death Cab succeed by refusing to offend", which "can be an admirable trait in a person, but never in a musician.

"[43] In his Consumer Guide column for the same publication, Robert Christgau selected "I Will Follow You into the Dark" as a "choice cut",[44] indicating a "good song on an album that isn't worth your time or money.

"[45] Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Rob Theakston declared that, "Plans is both a destination and a transitional journey for the group, one that sees the fulfillment of years of toiling away to develop their ideas and sound.

But it's with the completion of those ideas that the band is faced with a new set of crossroads and challenges to tread upon: to stay the course and suffer stagnation or try something bold and daringly new with their future.

"[46] Death Cab for Cutie was among the first indie acts to break through on a mainstream level, garnering consistent radio airplay and touring arenas in the aftermath of Plans.