Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: David Coats |
For the first half of album opener ‘Bixby Canyon Creek,’ full of their signature melodies and minimal atmospherics, Narrow Stairs seems like a continuation of Death Cab For Cutie’s last record, 2005’s Plans. At the halfway point, though, pounding drums and bass completely change the song’s complexion, venturing into unexpected territory. While it’s to the band’s credit to seek out a harder, more aggressive rock sound, the added muscle, combined with Chris Walla’s ever-sensitive delivery, doesn’t seem to match Ben Gibbard’s emotionally introspective lyrics. The song is indicative of much of the record that way – a combination of tried-and-true DCFC, and musical adventurousness that just somehow seems a little off.
Consider lead single ‘I Will Possess Your Soul’ exhibit B. While clearly trying to buck the trend of the three minute single, this eight minute effort opens with a four-and-a-half minute introduction which does nothing to advance the song. Gibbard continues to write gently mournful songs about growing up, and his best lyrical effort here is ‘No Sunlight’: “There was no sunlight anymore / and it disappeared at the same speed / As the idealistic things I believed / When the optimist died inside of me.†On the other hand, the song’s pop-rock again doesn’t fit the sentiment of the lyrics at all. Musically and conceptually, the most cohesive songs are ‘Cath…’ and the record’s most interesting song, the slightly menacing ‘Grapevine Fires.’ ‘You Can Do Better Than Me’ is an experiment that worked from the McCartney school of pop, while ‘Your New Twin Sized Bed’ would have been at home on Plans.
Death Cab For Cutie remain one of the few superstar indie bands, but while Narrow Stairs hopefully sets them up to execute a broader artistic vision on future records, the awkwardness of its growing pains make it more transitional than seminal. There may be growing pains here, but at least there’s growth.
