Album Reviews

Six studio albums deep into their career, Death Cab for Cutie have seemingly marked a turning point in their sound with Narrow Stairs. Lead singer and songwriter Benjamin Gibbard, also known for his well-received electro-pop side project The Postal Service, has declared the album a "curve ball," and on the surface, compared to the bulk of the band's released material, it is—at least to start. For instance, the eight-minute "I Will Possess Your Heart," which was leaked as a single to their MySpace page nearly a month prior to the album's release, boasts a four-minute intro and little in the way of Gibbard's trademarked saccharine melodies or rhythmic punch. Opener "Bixby Canyon Bridge" sports chugging, crunchy electric guitars and an extended bit of anthemic rocking out; however, once resplendently straightforward "No Sunlight" marks its entrance, the band seems ready to settle back into familiar territory, tossing off easy-going, verse/chorus indie rock.

Still, the results are sure to be divisive amongst critics and fans, as Narrow Stairs takes longer to develop than either of their last two releases, Plans and Transatlanticism, which both chartered unabashedly simple song structures and breezy vocal hooks throughout. Yet repeated listens of Narrow Stairs reveal moments of quiet bliss and cathartic release alternatively, such as the languid and subtly emotive chorus of "Grapevine Fires," with a pace mirroring a Western setting sun, and the candid, lost-love ruminations of "Your New Twin Sized Bed." The band quickens its step once more for "Long Division," which amalgamates their old sound with a faster, bigger and more direct chorus and outro; then comes "Pity and Fear," which fleetingly flirts with menacing undertones.

In the end, perhaps the perfect middle ground can be found on "Cath…," where a Built to Spill-inspired guitar line carries the song back and forth between the he-said-she-said vales of Gibbard's lovelorn lyricism, the common thread that inextricably links a decade's worth of material from one of indie rock's true success stories. —William Morris
05.08.08