"A lush, impeccably produced, musically adventurous, emotionally resonant examination of the way relationships are both strengthened and damaged by distance, the album surpasses Gibbard's other career highpoints, which is really saying something."  (Onion - AV Club)

"Penning star-crossed emotional pop from an optimist-realist perspective, his observational lyrics aren't mired in self-pity but flicker with lighthearted desolation, black comedy, and circumstantial challenges. Gibbard's fragile vocals bask in delicate, sometimes pretty melodies that coast on filed-down drumming, spacey percussive effects that creak like door hinges, decaying piano chords, and jangling guitars that leisurely ring and roll. When, as on the titanic title track, the glacial harmonies drift into a more aggressive mode, they do so for reasons of tension, not abrasion. While there are a million and one similarly styled bands, this quartet knows its way around an arrangement better than most. What else would you expect from a group that took its name from The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film?"  (Absolute Sound)

"Everything about the record is pure Death Cab: eloquent, introspective, and tinged with a resignation tempered only by a sense of vague optimism: "This is fact not fiction, for the first time in years," the record closes. Between that ambiguously uplifting epilogue and the opening lines, from the band's most radio-ready track, "The New Year" -- "this is the New Year, and I don't feel any different" -- Gibbard navigates familiar subject matter, albeit adrift in the great aural distances imposed by Walla's most ambitious production yet."  (PopMatters)

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