The sophomore slump is out. Today’s rock band proves itself with the second record, and Death Cab For Cutie is no exception. The band’s debut, Something About Airplanes, was strong and direct, emulating the newer sounds of the Northwest (aka Built to Spill). Grunge it was not.

But with 2000’s We Have The Facts and We’re Voting Yes, Death Cab truly stepped into their own. From the start of leadoff “Title Track,” singer/guitarist Ben Gibbard showed he could craft a catchy, clever and miserable album perfect for driving in the rain to. We Have The Facts is a manifesto.

But manifestoes come back to haunt their authors. How do you follow up a perfectly articulated statement of purpose? With over a year and the fine forbidden love EP separating them from Facts, Death Cab have returned with The Photo Album, a collection of 10 songs that both follow the traditional Gibbard formula and diverge into a more experimental sound.

There is a lot to like on Photo Album; the pristine production and miserable lyrics of earlier releases return stronger than ever.

Try not to don a black turtleneck while listening to “Information Travels Faster.” Who could resist the misery of such lines as “I intentionally wrote it out to be an illegible mess/ You wanted me to write you letters, but I’d rather lose your address/ And forget that we’d ever met and what did or did not occur”?

The one Photo Album song that truly charts new territory is “Styrofoam Plates,” which begins with Gibbard’s voice accompanied only a guitar and then adds layers until an absolutely flawless moment two minutes in, highlighted by new drummer Michael Schorr. He starts with gentle brush work and moves into a carefully-plotted line that wouldn’t be out of place on a Tortoise record. The band locks into a groove for a solid minute, repeating the same riff over and over, and it sounds great and it sounds fresh and it sounds unlike anything they have done.

Unfortunately, the rest of The Photo Album clings too tightly to Death Cab’s old work. Most formulaic is the second track, “A Movie Script Ending.” It features all of Gibbard’s favorite tricks, most notably self-referential lyrics. He likes to make fun of songs as he sings them: “Now we all know that all the words were true in the sappiest songs (yes, yes).” Making fun of or praising a song’s sappiness does not stop it from being sappy, and “Movie Script” is distinctly sappy, telling the story of a dream that isn’t actually interesting.

Death Cab just sounds too confident and self-assured this time around. Their delivery lacks the out-of-breath urgency that made We Have The Facts so essential at its release. The Photo Album knows its methods well and holds off saying too much or stepping too far out of line. It’s a safe rock record with top-notch writing that falls short of earlier work. Considering the facts, let’s vote “maybe” this time around. nyou