To some extent, this EP — culled from songs left off last year's Narrow Stairs — feels like a Death Cab for Cutie sampler pack: "Little Bribes" is a return to the jaunty guitar rock of The Photo Album; the driving "I Was Once a Loyal Lover" is the Seattle foursome at their poppiest; and the riff-based "My Mirror Speaks" would have fit perfectly on 2005's Plans. "These eyes don't shine half as bright/As they used to do/And they haven't for quite a while," Ben Gibbard croons on "Mirror," making it abundantly clear that — 12 years into his band's career — he's nowhere close to running out of things to be sad about.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."