Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Since they released their major-label debut Plans in 2005, Death Cab for Cutie has spent most of its time on tour. It shows on Narrow Stairs, their second album on Atlantic. Unlike Plans, which was a digitally-recorded, “construction project”-style studio album, as Gibbard describes it, Narrow Stairs was recorded on analog tape with limited overdubs—an attempt to capture the energy of their live show.

The main difference is the guitars—and we’re not talking acoustic, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” guitars. The album opens with a bang. Track one, “Bixby Canyon Bridge,” which was inspired by a writing trip/Kerouac pilgrimage Gibbard took to Big Sur, finds the band playing as loud as it ever has, unleashing a thundering squall of feedback at the song’s climax. Track two, “I Will Possess Your Heart,” doesn’t quite match “Bixby Canyon” for sheer volume but is just as powerful. Over four and half minutes of bass-driven Krautrock jamming, the moodiness and energy slowly build as the layers of reverb-drenched piano and guitar gradually accumulate. And then Gibbard starts singing. It’s an appropriately tense build-up for a song about a stalker.

After this intense one-two punch, DCFC cools things off a bit with “No Sunlight”—a short, punchy guitar-driven pop number whose fuzzy guitars don’t drown out the melodies—and “Cath…”–a familiarly bittersweet, but uptempo, song about an ex-girlfriend getting married that would have fit right in on Transatlanticism. The remainder of the album is split between bouncier, upbeat songs—”Your New Twin Sized Bed” and “Long Division”—and slower, more sentimental numbers—keyboard-driven “Grapevine Fires” and moody lament “The Ice Is Getting Thinner.”

There’s something for everyone here: loud, rocking numbers and delicate ballads; that familiar DCFC-of-old sound and some experimentation; lyrics both heartfelt and sentimental, and dark and creepy. This could be seen as a misguided attempt to please everyone—fans old and new, haters, music critics—but Narrow Stairs comes off as natural and sincere, the product of a band that feels totally comfortable to follow their varied interests and inspirations.

Standout tracks: “Bixby Canyon Bridge,” “Cath…”

Narrow Stairs was released TODAY on Atlantic Records. For more on Death Cab for Cutie, see their official website. And stay tuned to Sound for some more Death Cab-related goodness. Wednesday we’ll have an interview with Chris Walla, and Thursday an interview with Ben Gibbard.

Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records.