Narrow Stairs
Death Cab for Cutie
Score:74
Reviewer: Ed Butler
Label: Barsuk (USA), Warner (UK & Australia)
Reviewed: Aug 5th '08, Released:2008
Like it or not, being the indie darlings of the OC set has been defining for Death Cab for Cutie. Despite being well established before the Seth Cohen-led following of Transatlanticism, Death Cab, as they have become roundly known, took off. In the space of a year, they went from journeyman purveyors of indie rock that flirted with the mainstream to card-carrying icons of the young and beautiful. They became, in short, a missing link.
Then, on 2005’s Plans, they crossed over. The very essence of ordinariness, Plans was an object lesson in how to dumb down a sound that had been cultivated over prior albums of lushly produced alternative rock. It was a disappointment that it seems the band felt that they had to live down.
As such, Death Cab have forcibly removed themselves from that particular milieu. Narrow Stairs positively reeks of a band attempting to recapture something that has gone missing. There was no need for a four-minute instrumental introduction to the gently epic ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’, but as the song languidly unfurls itself around Nick Harmer’s menacingly sexual bassline, the appropriateness of Death Cab For Cutie’s enforced maturity is clearly evident.
Eight-and-a-half minutes with nary a decent climax in sight. To make half a song an introduction, with snaky bass, piano spurts and discordant chiming guitar feedback wafting through is achievement enough. To resist the understandably irresistible temptation to capitalise on this intensely emotional buildup with a knee-shaking climax is a demonstration of how determined the band was to confound expectations. And 'I Will Possess Your Heart' is a great song.
Not all of the experimentation is successful however. 'Talking Birds', a sloth-paced dirge built on the back of yet more guitar feedback, quickly tires. Here, rather than adding texture and menace, they grate. 'Long Division' uses catchy pop-punk rhythms to disguise some pretty horrendous lyrics "Remainder!/Remainder!". Ugh.
Maybe it's because Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) died. Maybe it's because the OC died. Perhaps this is a mourning album. But moving on from that ragtag collection of fictional, ultra-wealthy, suburbanite, 90210 clones is possibly the best thing Death Cab for Cutie ever did. While Narrow Stairs is no Transatlanticism, it leaves Plans in the dust, crying for its mum.
