Review: Death Cab's Narrow Stairs Broadens My Appreciation

I had been hearing advance descriptions of the new DCFC record, Narrow Stairs, for the past couple of months, and I must say, I had very high hopes for it being everything I already love about Death Cab with a new layer added: an edgy, raw, darker quality that promised - for me - to elevate this record to "new favorite" in their ten-year discography. I picked up my copy on Wednesday from our local independent record store, Toonerville Trolley Records in Williamstown, (props to Hal!), and listened to it in the car that afternoon on a drive to my brother's place. By the end of the second track I was ecstatic.

The album has an immediacy that is palpable. It feels like it was recorded live, by a talented four piece, who knows and loves their new material, and plays it with nuance and drive that I find lacking in many of the "modern" indie rock releases of the past 5 years. The production stands way clear of the through-line of the songs themselves, and the clarity and presence of the vocals, the drums, and keyboards (which are mostly piano). The band was playing inside the back hatch of my car all the way to Lee, MA. There is a nice balance between the crispness of the cymbals, lead vocal, and the picking on the bass, with the spacey wash and crunch of the guitar parts, and the stereo swim of some of the keys parts. Like the very best rock albums, Narrow Stairs sounds like a band, all of whose members are playing their part in creating a singular sound - a 5th member of the band being the band itself. No one person over playing or showing off, everyone serving the song and the vision of the production (guitarist Chris Walla's best sounding DCFC record yet). I love it.

The songs are smartly crafted, and have almost as many opportunities to stretch out and jam as they to do remain tight and deliver a great hook. Gibbard's songwriting has continued to evolve, yet has managed to retain its best qualities. Band members Nicholas Harmer on bass, Jason McGerr on drums and Walla on guitar, have all written parts that suit the melody and define the rhythm of this set of songs in a pure and effortless way. The plain (as in 'clear', not 'uninteresting'), open lyrics, and immediately singable melodies are there for the latching-onto. The opening song "Bixby Canyon Bridge" is one of those lead off tracks that in later weeks and months you long to hear when you see the cover of the CD sitting on your table. Just like "Marching Bands of Manhattan" from this album's predecessor Plans... when I happen see that artwork, I simply must play that song. "Bixby" delivers the same classic appeal, and builds up from a nearly a cappella verse-one, ambiguously syncopated until the sweet arpeggio and bass-roots of the pre-chorus tell us where the "one" actually is, into the thumping drive of verse three where the vocals spaz out and split into stereo with mild distortion and a restrained vault of energy pounds through with straight heavy-rock tom-tom chugs... and then a still-building bridge which spills into a multi minute outro section that seems to want to release its explosive output forever with tide-like waves of decades-old effects stomp boxes layering and shifting the guitars and additional lead guitar sections that pile on the potential energy of the album to come. The a cappella-n-distortion-scratch epilogue of this song then seamlessly ramps up into the four-plus minute intro of "I Will Possess Your Heart" a stalker/P.O.V. love song, that renders the first 15 minutes of this record instantly classic. I just looked at my wife when it concluded, and said "Yes!"

The mood-splitting, yet instantly catchy "No Sunlight" follows this extended album intro up with its bouncy sixties-pop hand-clap snare beat - yet again, with this tasty layer of immediate-raw-pop-rock guitar lead spelling out a line that will not appear again till the outro of the track. From there we take a number of other seemingly disparate (but ultimately so very connected) journeys from melancholy indie rock with "Cath..." with its perfect tempo and a quite inventive drum beat/guitar groove, and super strong pop chorus, to the quiet and rainy-Sunday "Talking Bird", (almost smacking [nicely] of The Innocence Mission), to the Brian Wilsonesque "You Can Do Better Than Me" (complete with "God only knows"-ish tympani and jingle bells!). Nice turn.

The second half of the record starts with a trademark Jason McGerr shuffle beat and sweet swimmy electric piano and vocal verse one that is quintessential Benjamin Gibbard on "Grapevine Fires." The expressively sad lyric of "Your New Twin Sized Bed" about someone who hits a point in their life when they realize there will be no "other" to share the rest of it with and trades in that too-long-owned queen sized bed for a twin, sits inside a bright song with clean melodic guitar riffs that widen the meaning of the song interpretively as if to honor the truth that sadness is. The rightness of it, even while its, you know... not right. An early 80's rock sound kicks off "Long Division" a song that makes brilliant use of the word "remainder" in another chorus that I can't stop singing, dammit! The stylistic journey (Walla called the then-still-developing album 'weird' in an article posted by Paul Thompson on Pitchfork, and said it had 'lots of blood' and felt 'creepy and heavy') continues with a cool tabla based (sequenced?) drum part that brings yet another totally new sound to this particular collection on "Pity and Fear." This is a real departure for DCFC, and a welcome experiment that I hope catapults what appears to be a growing desire for genre-bending into future compositions. The sub-45 minute record closes with the somber and sobering "The Ice Is Getting Thinner," and if you happen to have the repeat button pushed in as I did, you'll discover that not only does the album segue really nicely back into itself, but you won't mind at all just letting it play once more. A fantastic release by one of the best rock bands making records today.

The album is available on iTunes as a regular $9.99 album, and a $12.99 version which includes the 11 tracks of the normal release, plus the radio edit of "Possess", both the 8 minute and 4 minute version of the video for same, a demo of "No Sunlight", and the album credits read by Mike West. The bonus video version of Narrow Stairs is currently (5/17) the number one top album on iTunes store, and the regular version is the number four top album.

If you missed the Letterman appearance... it's a must-see. This live, shortened version of track 2 "I Will Possess Your Heart" is a really strong performance. I'll embed the YouTube clip here. Enjoy.



There was also a great documentary feature (runs about 25 minutes) on Current TV called Death Cab For Cutie: Open Windows. Very well produced, and fills in some essential information for fans old and new about the production and conception of this new project. Narrow Stairs stands strongly next to "Plans" and "Transatlanticism" in their catalog, and will certainly bring a whole new mess of fans into the fold. With a great showing on Letterman, and the bold release of an 8 minute first single, which is growing on me every time I hear it, that intoxicating groove will not leave my head! I'm hoping to catch the live show on one of the legs of of the tour the band is said to be spending the next 18+ months delivering to all points.