Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
Album: Narrow Stairs
Label: Atlantic
Purchase: Atlantic Records store
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Overall: 9.0
Music: 9.5
Lyrics: 9.0
Production: 10.0
Excuse me while I write a quick, informal letter to the great city of Seattle.
Dear Seattle,
You reside in Washington, yes, but I feel as if you’re right next door”¦Seattle, Alabama perhaps? If living in Seattle feels anything at all like listening to a Death Cab for Cutie album (plus rain, a severely underrated form of precipitation and my personal favorite), then I’ll visit often and willingly cry strong, nostalgic tears of pain on the plane rides home.
Love,
-Trace
With principal songwriter Ben Gibbard, you’re always assured an atmosphere all its own ““ be it a supposed Seattle, the winter season in general, or, in the case of Narrow Stairs, the lyrical world of Ben Gibbard’s mind.
The atmosphere begins immediately with “Bixby Canyon Bridge,” featuring Gibbard’s voice, almost alone, crawling from silence and steadily inviting guitars, drums, and bass along for the build. Guitarist Chris Walla’s production here is in top form, a feat no doubt helped by his accomplished work producing past Death Cab albums and others (notably, Tegan and Sara’s The Con). Walla gives each song a little room to breathe, but also plenty of space to scream. Death Cab for Cutie even manages to eclipse the seeming inevitability of pompousness with the nearly nine minute length of first single “I Will Possess Your Heart” by simply pulling it off without question, a confidence few bands allow for themselves.
There are really no missteps here at all, but something hidden underneath the songwriting keeps Narrow Stairs from being an inarguably great album. Ben Gibbard is a confident lyricist in a band confidently embracing the future of their sound, but he seems to get a bit lost in the “Death Cab-ness” of his songs, never fully graduating from “very, very good” to great. Perhaps Seattle’s response to my theoretical love letter will come in the form of Death Cab for Cutie’s first truly great album. Naturally, I hope it’s raining that day.
Track Listing
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. I Will Possess Your Heart
3. No Sunlight
4. Cath …
5. Talking Bird
6. You Can Do Better Than Me
7. Grapevine Fires
8. Your New Twin Sized Bed
9. Long Division
10. Pity And Fear
11. The Ice Is Getting Thinner
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