Death Cab For Cutie: Narrow Stairs

Death Cab For Cutie

multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris Walla sounded the alarm just after New

Year's: In one interview, he described Narrow Stairs as a "total curve ball"

and a "really polarizing record" that's "got some teeth." To drive the message home,

the band designated the eight-minute "I Will Possess Your Heart" as the album's

first single, albeit in truncated radio-ready form.

But change is always

relative. For a generally fey band like Death Cab, a darker, more abrasive

approach has produced simply its most rock 'n' roll album to date. "Bixby

Canyon Bridge" opens the album in typical Death Cab fashion, with a ghostly

guitar and Ben Gibbard's voice. Bass and a second guitar come in

intermittently, and a hi-hat ticks quietly. But when drummer Jason McGerr comes

down hard on his toms, the guitars distort, and the airiness of the song's

first minute gives way to the immediacy of a rock club.

Those moments are more

common on Narrow Stairs than on its predecessors: "No Sunlight," "Long Division," and

the end of "Pity And Fear" all have that rock-band urgency. They're nicely

complemented by the sunny '60s pop of "You Can Do Better Than Me," the chilly

slowness of "The Ice Is Getting Thinner," and "Cath…," which sounds like an

unreleased track from 2000's We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes. Narrow Stairs finds Death Cab

comfortable with all aspects of its musical personality—and on top of

them all.