[Album cover courtesy of allmusic.com]
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIENarrow Stairs
[Atlantic-2008]
The brightness of the spotlight can be such a double-edged sword. One minute you’re the steadily climbing critical and popular darling that everyone else has finally noticed, only to be swiftly and immediately taken to task in the next. For Seattle’s Death Cab for Cutie that moment came after the release of Plans, their major label debut and follow-up to their fourth and best album to date, 2003’s Transatlanticism. With fans clamoring for more of the same, the band offered up a more introspective than usual collection of songs that did little in the way of enhancing their artistic profile. (On the other hand, the album went platinum and select songs were all over the soundtracks of the hit TV teen dramas.) Many cried foul and ascribed the nature of the record to major label pressure/coercion/suggestion. Can’t say we blame ’em: after all, the deep-rooted melancholy of Plans was a bit much at times. DCFC have always mined this particular terrain, of course, but Plans seemed one long bummer, catchy single “Crooked Teeth”, not withstanding. The glum vibe is still present—especially in the slightly weak middle of the album—on Narrow Stairs, but the band has wisely ceded much of that previously occupied real estate to a bit more in the way of atmospherics, and more importantly, to some welcome bona-fide rockers. In the end, Narrow Stairs is a flawed album, but an improvement over the minor slip of Plans, and another reason to look forward to more of DCFC’s particular brand of major label-indie rock in the future.
Highlights: first single, the eight-minute plus “I Will Possess Your Heart”; “No Sunlight”, “Cath…”, “Grapevine Fires”, “Long Division”.
