Ben Gibbard Acoustic Live

NPR has a live acoustic show of Ben Gibbard at All Songs Considered. It's worth a listen and proves a few truths:

• Gibbard has a deceptively supple voice that is often in danger of going too high and shredding itself.
• That being said, even he can't sing some of the songs on Plans. If you're a long-time Death Cab fan who couldn't quite dig the album, I think it's because he wrote the songs in the wrong key for his voice. Just listen to "Soul Meets Body" about halfway through the show.
  
• The reason the Postal Service album is one of the best albums of the 00s is that all the songs are built on strong foundations and can be played on an acoustic guitar without all the electronica (the same is true when you hear Jeff Tweedy sing songs from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by himself on a guitar).
• Gibbard sounds better with a guitar than with a piano.