Death Cab for Cutie
(Atlantic)
Ben Gibbard has made a career out of being miserable, so it’s no surprise that Death Cab for Cutie’s latest album is a similar foray into all things depressing. But while Death Cab’s previous albums, 2003’s Transatlanticism and 2005’s Plans, had a meandering, dreamlike quality interspersed with despairing lyrics about failed relationships and lives falling apart, Narrow Stairs buzzes with a frenzied, frantic tone, mixed with an (un)healthy dose of unhappiness.
Gibbard still excels at making pained lyrics sound disturbingly happy, such as on “No Sunlight” (“the optimist died inside of me,” he sings) and jams occur heavy and often, as with the first four minutes of the stalker-ish first single “I Will Possess Your Heart.” But the similarity of subject matter and instrumentation (lush as it may be) make all the songs flow together into one morose blob; only a few markedly different tracks, such as “Bixby Canyon Bridge” and “Pity and Fear,” stand out. Overall, the album is more of the same for Death Cab – there’s nothing on here as fantastic as on Transatlanticism, and there’s nothing as interesting or melodic as on Plans. Narrow Stairs is just as morose as you expected – nothing more.
Standout Tracks: “I Will Possess Your Heart,” “Pity and Fear” ROXANA HADADI
