We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes

by

Death Cab for Cutie

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes is the second studio album by American rock band Death Cab for Cutie. It was released on March 21, 2000, through Barsuk Records. The band, which originally included singer-songwriter Ben Gibbard, guitarist/producer Chris Walla, bassist Nick Harmer, and drummer Nathan Good, formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. Their debut studio album, Something About Airplanes, was released in 1998 through Barsuk, after which Good exited the band. Between the two albums, both Gibbard and Walla released music via side projects, ¡All-Time Quarterback! and Martin Youth Auxiliary, respectively.

The album was developed over a period of five months between the three, and recorded at the members' parents' homes. The recording came at a transitional time for the band, who were on the cusp of adulthood with little idea of what was to come. Gibbard infused these post-collegiate anxieties into his lyricism, with his songwriting melding narratives with abstract imagery for the first time. The album is sonically downbeat, with its despondent sound and spindly guitar work heavily influenced by slowcore.

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes received acclaim from music critics, with praise directed towards Gibbard's songwriting. Death Cab for Cutie supported the album with their first full nationwide tour, with drummer Jayson Tolzdorf-Larson joining. No singles were released from the album, though the LP was followed by an extended play, The Forbidden Love EP, several months after its release.