Climbing Death Cab for Cutie's 'Narrow Stairs'

I became a fan of Death Cab for Cutie immediately, as a lot of people did, when 'I Will Follow You Into the Dark' and 'Soul Meets Body' (from their album Plans) received widespread radio airplay. Fortunately, enamored as I was with their sweet sounds, I jumped at the first chance of Internet access and listened to a variety of their music from past and present albums to really get a feel for the band. Fans who went no deeper than the singles from Plans, however, would likely be lost should they decide to listen to Narrow Stairs in its entirety.

The album starts off with 'Bixby Canyon Bridge', a roller coaster ride that starts out flat, leaving listeners with lowered expectations, then takes them all the more by surprise when the dense, headstrong riffs, distortion, and "jam session" bit at the end come on. It moves into their first single, 'I Will Possess Your Heart'. This song consists of four and a half minutes of intro (with the contrasting prowly bass and lofty keyboards) and four minutes of lyrics and melody (the huge stick-in-your-head potential plays down the shifty-eyed obsession behind the lyrics). The album ends with the 'The Ice Is Getting Thinner', a spare and resigned portrait of a moribund love.

DCFC claimed that this was their most experimental album yet, and it shows. On both ends of the spectrum too. You could swear that the upbeat 'No Sunlight' and the heavy, frantic lope of 'Pity and Fear' were done by two totally different artists.

My personal favorite, however, is 'Grapevine Fires', written about the Californian wildfires. It is captivating, calming, creepy, and quite chill.

But while Narrow Stairs is expanding Death Cab's musical style, they grew narrower lyrically. Their lyrics for this album are generally less poetic or cryptic. In a few cases, this drained the song of any of their trademark true, deep-set emotion. For example, the soulless lyrics of 'I Will Possess Your Heart''s chorus suggest that once (frontman) Gibbard gets the girl, he won't want her anymore.

Honestly, though, it was the emotion in general. In some places, I found it lacking. In others, it was present, but seemed a bit detached somehow.

Another thing I noticed was that the vocals seemed a little more restrained, making more room for instrumental stuff, but also literally. Ben Gibbard's style of singing sounds choppier and more abrupt in Narrow Stairs, and I thought that was interesting to note.

I'm not going to bore you with the artist information. If you are reading this article, you very likely know who Death Cab are already, as well as their history, what all the band members' favorite colors are, and so on and so forth. If you are simply reading this review as a last resort to prevent being bored out of your skull and have never heard of them, names and places won't mean much to you anyway.

The album art, however, was done by E. E. Storey.

If I had to pick one word to describe Narrow Stairs, it would be 'dynamic'. There are songs that are loud and drawn out. There are songs that are quiet and bare. There are catchy and upbeat songs too. Overall, I would say that Death Cab managed to pull this one off. It's just that I personally would have preferred the opposite a little bit more - a sound that stays true to how their sound has been before, lyrics that resonate and soar, and a vocal emphasis.