Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs Review
Death Cab For Cutie have reached that strange place in an indie bands life-cycle where they have managed to make the jump to a major label then managed the more difficult task of keeping their fans while releasing another album. Their success is impressive, and the diehard indie fans that fall away as they make their way into the mainstream are only losing out on what remains an excellent, and quintessentially indie band.
Their new album Narrow Stairs is definitely a progression however and there is a sense of something lost and something gained. Listening to my favourite Death Cab albums Plans and Transatlanticism in the lead-up to Narrow Stairs I realised that the feel of the music is so consistent that when playing the songs out of order, and even mixed in together, it is hard to determine the origin of each song.
What Narrow stairs loses is this sameness, and this is at first hard to come to grips with. On the first listen you feel that, somehow, this isn’t the same band that put together “Title and Registration” or “What Sarah Said”. But that is a cosmetic impression, as all first impressions are. Deeper into the album you find the same ingredients that are what makes Death Cab’s albums. Front man Ben Gibbard’s hesitancy and emtotional vulnerability is still here, along with that self deprecating streak(Track 6 – “You Can Do Better Than Me”) and the lyrical obsession with how love is affected by death(Track 1-“Bixby Canyon Bridge”) . The clever and playful guitar is still here, although with a little more metal. What has been gained is a sense of lightness, both in terms of less gravity in the lyrics and in the aesthetic of the composition. It manifests as a sense of playfulness that isn’t as obvious in their older work. In “You Can do Better Than Me” they have mixed an upbeat piano/organ melody with the lyrics “I’m starting to feel that we stayed together out of fear, of dying alone” resulting in an infectious pop-style song, with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.
It’s not all good news however; there are two tracks on the album that just don’t feel right. Namely “Talking Bird” and “The Ice is Getting Thinner”. Talking Bird is, unsurprisingly, about a talking bird and even taking it as a metaphor for a girl as it is surely intended leaves the song feeling shallow. The Ice is Getting Thinner is a very generic sounding metaphor for the long slow decline of a relationship. They don’t do the band justice, and they mar an otherwise enjoyable album.
The album is a progression, but what is here is still Death Cab, it’s just not quite the same as before.