Benjamin “Ben” Gibbard told us that the songs comprising his forthcoming Former Lives — his first solo album — were “not songs that weren’t good enough to make Death Cab records as much as they were things that … well, there’s not really place on a Death Cab record for a song that sounds like Big Star or Teenage Fanclub. It’s not what we do.” And you know, it really would be difficult to imagine “Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke)” on a Death Cab album — it’s a playful, airy bit of pop mariachi with a melancholy lyric about life in Los Angeles. Might have been a hoot to see those dudes in sombreros and charro suits, though. Ah well, missed opportunity. Check out the music.

Former Lives is out 10/16 via Barsuk.