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From:Death Cab for Cutie , Atlantic ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#136 |
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Grows on you, one bad track, 2008-08-09
At first I thought this cd was a step back from previous efforts from Death Cab, but after a while it grows on you. Many of the songs run together very well, and I can say that after I removed "I will possess your heart," the quality of the cd went up 10 fold for me personally. After Bixby leaves you just wanting another great song, you're put into the boring and tedious 2nd track. It feels more like a secret type song that is put 5 minutes of silence past the last track.
 Just got Better..., 2008-08-09
Transatlanticism. Wow! Masterpiece! I've never heard a better indie album! It is surely untoppable!
Then Plans comes along. Full of insanely awesome, yet very discreet hooks, and pitch-perfect songwriting, it was a sad affair that nearly beat out Transatlanticism.
Then comes Narrow Stairs with its unexpectedly artsy fartsy lead single "...Possess Your Heart", and was clear that Death Cab had reinvented their own personal musical wheel.
Let's get one thing clear, I really only love about half of the album. "Bixby Canyon Bridge" has all been done before, "No Sunlight" seems almost like self-mockery, and "Pity and Fear" and "The Ice is Getting Thinner" are just flatout boring. And "You Can Do Better Than Me" is meant to be a joke, right? Ha ha.
Anyways, now for the songs that will be playing in my mind until I am an old decrepit geezer. "Cath..." has the best blues influence you'll likely ever find on ANY indie album, and it is also the track that has been generating the most steam. Best of all, I HATED this song the first few times I heard it. Then something happened, I think I payed greater attention to the guitar, which made the song for me.
"Long Division" is absolutely one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard. But catchiness doesn't matter. A guitar riff that starts on the half rest, plodding its way through a song that it feels like it doesn't even belong in, like an Ewok at a Cannibal Corpse concert. Okay, bad analogy. But it doesn't feel right, but yet it's awesome. An amazing tune.
And for my favorite song of 2008, at least until Underoath comes back around, is "Grapevine Fires" Oh, geez, what a SONG!! I swear I cried when I heard it. You will too. It has the most hauntingly off-kilter and beautiful melody just about ever, and it will never leave my mind. A great way to cap off my freshman year of college. This song made 2008 for me so far. The lyrics obviously pertaining to the Governator's wildfire crisis, are so down to earth and warming it feels like the song is actually conversing with you. Amazing!
Many people have disliked this album. Yes, it has flaws. Some parts are Death Cab or perhaps even all of indie rock at their most mature, while others are just silly. But the four or five good songs on the album warrant it a classic, they really are that good. I'm pretty sure every Death Cab fan in the world has heard this album by now, but if new to the band, it's not a bad place to start, even if after it the other albums sound like a transgression.
 Narrow Music, 2008-08-05
It says a lot when the most striking and original thing about an album is the artwork on the liner notes. Unfortunatly, this is the case with Narrow Stairs. Although it is very similar to the poppy Plans, it has the problem of being just an extension of that album's material. There are no songs here that are catchy in a poppy way, or memorable in the lyrical way that the best Plans material, and the best pre-Plans DCFC material.
I've listened to this album 3 or 5 times since I bought it, but afterwards it quickly dropped into the vast reaches of my MP3 archive. If it surfaces from time to time I won't be upset, since all the songs are listenable and easily identifiable as DCFC. But I doubt that I will seek it out.
If you are already a Death Cab fan, then this a good buy if you want to be a completist. For casual fans, I would suggest looking into an older album that you don't already own.
 Good melodies, but..., 2008-08-03
I wouldn't call myself a fan of Death Cab, but I picked this album up off Amazon because I wanted to go see their concert when it was in town. It definitely has some excellent vocal melodies which are memorable, for example on "Bixby", "I Will Possess Your Heart", and "The ice is getting thinner". But altogether its not a very exciting album (they didn't play many of the songs at the concert, hmmm).
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs 6/10, 2008-07-24
Well, no one can accuse Death Cab for Cutie of selling out. While their last album, Plans, had many questioning Ben Gibbard and company's artistic vision, Narrow Stairs is a firm step in the other direction. It starts off unabashedly experimental and continues, for the most part, in that direction for the remainder of the album. But is Death Cab being experimental just for the sake of trying to do something new? With their newest, it's a little bit hard to tell.
"Bixby Canyon Bridge" starts off with a wash of ambient noise and Gibbard's distinctive, eternally boyish voice talking about arriving "at the place where your soul had died." The song is a striking departure from their earlier work, all pounding instrumental crescendos and a ridiculous noise freakout at the climactic finish. Hey, I can still dig it, as Gibbard's lyrics remain as strong as ever and the song has a powerful cathartic feel to it.
Things get a little out of hand, however, with the following song, first single "I Will Possess Your Heart." The first four and a half minutes are a slow build-up of an instrumental jam until Gibbard's desperate vocals kick in. To be sure, Death Cab was never meant to mimic Explosions in the Sky, and the rest of the song is neither interesting nor catchy enough to regain the interest lost in the musical wankery earlier.
The band picks it up with "No Sunlight" and the following "Cath...," two songs that call to mind the Death Cab of old. The melodies are solid, Gibbard hits the perfect dichotomy between his bright singing and the dark lyrics, and the band throws away any attempts at experimenting. The resulting focus on pure grade-A songwriting lifts the album back up.
And then the momentum is again killed with the meandering "Talking Birds," which stumbles around a simple drumbeat and a droning guitar moaning in the background. It's almost as if Death Cab is trying too hard to do something new, and in the process forgo any semblance of hook or melody to capture the listener.
Lyrically, the album is more somber in tone than Plans, and Gibbard is in top form talking about everything from the California wildfires to bedroom furniture. While the music follows suit and the instrumental choices are often more varied than in previous releases (kudos to producer/guitarist Chris Walla), too much of many of the songs sounds like just rocking out for the sake of pleasing themselves rather than advancing the individual songs or the record as a whole.
The best songs are those that play to Death Cab's strengths rather than trying to create new ones. "Long Division" keeps the focus on song structure instead of deviating into a mess of sounds and sounds fresh and urgent. "The Ice Is Getting Thinner" is a closing slow song in the best tradition of Death Cab gems like "A Lack of Color" and "Stable Song," sounding wistful without dipping into sappy nostalgia.
Narrow Stairs is a hit-or-miss record. Whereas some of their more adventurous stretches succeed, most notably "Bixby Canyon Bridge," others fall flat and turn the band's attention away from what they do best. But Death Cab's knack for churning out poppy yet thoughtful numbers like "Cath..." should keep their fans reassured that the foursome haven't lost their gift.
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