Recording information: Private Ear, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; The Alberta Court, Portland, OR; Two Sticks Audio, Seattle, WA.

Death Cab followed their first number one Billboard album, NARROW STAIRS, with this EP featuring five outtakes from those sessions. Judged at the time by the band to be out of step with the mood of the rest of NARROW STAIRS, the songs feature the band's lean and mean indie pop and Ben Gibbard's dense but always hummable narratives. Balancing regretful musings like "all my friends are forward thinking/getting hitched and quitting drinking" from the stand-out "I Was Once A Loyal Lover" with his trademark wryly odd observances like "behind every slot machine is robot amputee waving hello" from the poppy opener "Little Bribes," the singer toys with metaphorical entrances and escapes throughout THE OPEN DOOR. Closing the proceedings is another standout, a demo of "Talking Bird" from NARROW STAIRS, which finds Gibbard strumming a ukulele on a take of the song even more sparse and effecting than the album version.