Music : Narrow Stairs

Rating: - Superb, but I still prefer Plans
I love this album, but for me even though I think it contains some of their finest work todate, I can't help but prefer Plans which to me was as near perfect as an album can get!

You can tell that the band are moving in a new, exciting direction with this album, and whilst in the main it works, the intro on I will possess your heart for me is just far too long and repetitive.

However, there are some to soon become classics such as Grapevine Fires and Your New Twin Sized Bed. I think the lyrics are achingly beautiful, and can be related to by anyone who's experienced love and loss.

I would highly recommend this album, but I would also say if you have not heard their Plans album, treat yourself to that too.

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Rating: - Another classic.......
I must say when I played this the first 5 times I was a bit disappointed with it compared to Plans and Translanticism....it wasn't as immediate.....but now the melodies have got into my soul......and I am now counting the days (12 !) till I see them live for the first time.....

Its a bit edgier than the previous two.....but thats a good thing.....

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Rating: - Outstanding
I'll begin by saying that I am completely new to this band. There are some reviews here from long-term fans and I just wanted to add the perspective of someone hearing the album without any previous experience.

In short, I think the album is outstandingly good. It puts me in mind of other great song-driven bands such as Tears for Fears or World Party or the less well-known Nada Surf. I think the band have created a very interesting mix of get-up-and-dance jangly pop/rock songs and some more thoughtful/experimental stuff with indie-leanings as well. There is nothing that will necessarily shock or surprise you here - this is mainstream stuff and the Beach-Boys inspired "You Can Do Better Than Me" or the appearance of the Tabla (bring out the Tablas!) later in the album really make that point, but the album is a very good blend of optimism and melancholy that American guitar bands seem to do so well. There are some subtle gems here though... unlike some other reviewers I think the 8-minute "I will possess your heart" is a work of genius and is reminiscent of the soundscapes of the Doves or of indie-bands like New Order. If you listen to it in those terms then it works really well.

If you prefer your music to be relatively mainstream, but enjoy occasional reminders of deeper things, then I think this album would make an essential addition to your collection. There are subtle overtones of so many great things here that, for me at least, the album is easy to listen to and an exciting joy at the same time. I'm so glad I came across this band!

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Rating: - Innocence lost
After crossing over from the indie ghetto into the US mainstream with last album `Plans' (platinum Stateside but largely unnoticed over here) Atlantic will be looking to `Narrow Stairs' to break DCfC in the UK. Despite that success, DCfC haven't sat back on their laurels and then put out `Plans II'. `Narrow Stairs' uses a broader musical palate than their earlier work and reflects the growing experience and ambition of lead guitarist and producer Chris Walla. These are songs that have a strong skeleton onto which the layers of instrumentation are built: Gibbard has said that he `made a conscious decision to sit down with the guitar and make sure they could all be played on an acoustic'. And in comparison with `Plans' there's a more spontaneous feel. `Narrow Stairs' still occupies the broad firmament of American indie, literate, melancholy, introspective, but this time out, there's an experimental edge to the music. Radiohead meets The National? Wilco meet Coldplay?

Lyrically however the songs here are almost unremittingly despairing, chronicling the loss of innocence and an increasing sense of pointlessness; the loss of idealism followed by despairing compromise. If there are relationships at all, they whither and die, but dreams of love have largely been replaced by attempts to ward off loneliness. As an insight into Gibbard's current state of mind, Narrow Stairs' paints a frightening picture, only confirmed by his subsequent musings. Fortunately the musical backdrop shows a lighter touch, or wrists would be slit before the final track fades.

Talking about Bixby Bridge Gibbard referred to `the romance of the road, particularly from Kerouac's work, encapsulated how I wanted to live'. He has also talked about the consequences of choosing to live in that way, for Kerouac and ultimately for himself: `...you end up with a series of failed relationships and you end up being an alcoholic...and not having any kind of real grip on the lives of the people around you. I run the risk of losing touch with the people in my life that mean the most to me because I have made the decision to live like this.' `Why did I think I was going to come here and have this place change my life?' he mused `I wanted it so badly. I wanted to cleanse myself with this place...' Expressing his sense of failure and confusion, he says: `The epiphany never came. I'm just as confused now as when I got here six months ago...I'd totally idealised what I'd be able to accomplish down here. At some point I thought that, as I got older, I'd come to terms with a lot of things. I'd solve some big problems, and eventually I'd become content. But I don't think that'll ever happen'. This internal turmoil and sense of desperation permeates the whole album from opening track "Bixby Canyon Bridge", where Gibbard's distinctive high tenor over muscular riffing narrates a trip in the footsteps of Kerouac, seeking enlightenment. Surely he muses, there must be more to life than this. But the sojourn ends in disillusion `...and I trudged back to where the car was parked, no closer to any kind of truth...'

On first single `I Will Possess Your Heart' a long percussive intro, repeats and builds, propelled by bass and drums overlaid with a simple repeated melodic fragment on keyboard and vibes. A rejected lover just can't let go, and his devotion is turning to obsession and possibly something darker. Gibbard has said this song is `about the inevitable disappointment people feel as they move through life, and things don't feel the way they expect. No experience will ever match up to the idealised version in your mind'.

`Cath...' is the first of a series of songs journaling the awful choices that we sometimes have to make in relationships. To compromise, and commit to someone who falls short of our ideal, or to allow our hearts to die. And Cath's choice seems particularly desperate to Gibbard who paints himself as someone who, had she but realised it, would have loved her. In a similar vein in `You can do better...' the protagonist recognises where he's well off, even though he's regularly tempted to stray, while `Your New Twin Sized Bed' with its hypnotically repeated chiming guitar figure offers the story of someone who has given up on ever finding a life partner. Seeing how defeated the subject is, the narrator is terrified by the awful thought of what his own future might hold. On `Pity and Fear' nameless partners of casual liaisons, entered into to dull the pain of loneliness, walk away apparently free from consequences while the protagonist sinks deeper and deeper.

On `No Sunlight' the bouncy summery music belies the lyrical content: the death of youthful innocence and optimism is followed by a desperate nihilistic despair, while `Grapevine Fires' offers some hopefulness amidst the blackness, because while it may only be `a matter of time before we all burn' the singer professes himself `content to spend that time here with you - there's nowhere I'd rather be'.

`The Ice Is Getting Thinner' is hardly a hopeful note on which to finish the album as Gibbard chronicles the slow demise of a relationship, as a couple grow apart, finding less and less in common but reluctant to say out loud what they know in their hearts, that the love that they shared is just an empty shell. Coloured by steel / slide guitar, this spare sparse piece comes as a relief after the relentlessly busy, driving, propulsive procession of songs that precede it.

'Narrow Stairs' is a step forward for a band that's continuing to develop, if not the giant leap that some were hoping for.

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Rating: - Death Cab For Cutie
Already being a fan of the band Death Cab For Cutie, I can honestly say that I was a little shocked by some aspects of the new album. The 7 minute long epic 'I Will Possess Your Heart' is definitely a new stepping stone in the increasing journey of the band, and one that in my oppinion is a step back. Sure enough it has some nice aspects: the guitar has a nice echo and some sweet effects, and the bass line is porbably one of the hookiest pieces of music the band has written to date - mainly due to the fact that the same bass line is repeated over and over without change through the entire 7 minutes of the song. This does make the song a tad boring, and quite tiresome.

The opening track is what you would expect from Death Cab For Cutie. It follows along the same lines as previous album openers 'Marching Bands Of Manhattan' from Plans and 'The New Year' from Transatlanticism. Each album often contatining an easily accessible, slow building, catchy Indie-Rock masterpiece. This is the case again on this album, however with a slight twist. A Hard-Rock plunge on the guitars for the closing moments of the song comes as a new introduction to a familiar sound on this album, and one that works surpirisingly well with their trademark accessible Indie Pop.

No Sunlight is another stab at their harder work, with a catchy chorus and some beautiful tinkly guitar work. Often reminiscent of early Bloc Party, and Long Division is also of a similar sound. 'Talking Bird' is a slower track with long drawn out vocals that spread the seed of lyrical beauty as Gibbard wails metaphor after metaphor often refering to lonliness and being caged in. 'You Can Do Better Than Me' initially sounds like a christmas jingle, with scintillating bell sounds jingling in the foreground and swooping bass lines. The lyrics are some of Gibbards most honest to date, trully epitamising his lyrical beauty and depth with ingenious poetic lines.

'Grapevine Fires' and 'Your New Twin Sized Bed' may well be some of Death Cab For Cutie's greatest work to date, closely resembled to the work on Transatlanticism. Lonliness and love: often a key ingredient to Gibbard's writing has never been brought across with such poetic beauty before, and the hooky guitar work and fear inspiring vocal courage is brought across to an apocalyptic extent. 'The Ice is Getting Thinner' is a true closing to the album; not letting it continue anywhere else but a conclusion giving the album a trully fulfilling feel.

Although the album portrays some of Death Cab For Cutie's greatest work to date, the other half of the album, however, feels a little incomplete - mainly due to the more experimentalisation used from the band. This is not a bad thing, it gives the band a more broad scale of sound, it just seems like the band may need some more time before they're new sound can be perfected. That is to say, a fantastic album, that could lead to much greater things.