This paper aims at investigating the tradeoff between ergodic energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE) for device-to-device (D2D) communications underlaying cellular networks. Assuming average-based resource allocation, we propose a multiobjective optimization problem (MOOP) approach to deal with the EE and SE maximization problem. Specifically, the formulated MOOP results in the maximization of the total ergodic sum rate of the D2D users and the minimization of the total average transmit power of the D2D transmitters. Two practical scenarios are considered, i.e., a limited interference scenario, which includes the sparsely deployed scenario, and a densely deployed scenario, where for each scenario the maximum achievable EE and SE are derived. Specifically, considering the limited interference scenario, an upper bound is imposed on the received interference across different D2D communications, and closed-form expressions for the optimal power allocation, ergodic sum rate, and maximum EE are obtained. In the general, densely deployed scenario, however, the cross D2D network interference needs to be taken into account. We provide an optimal solution for the power control based on sequential fractional programming to tradeoff between complexity and performance gain. Simulation results unveil an interesting tradeoff to strike a balance between EE and SE.