Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Published

Wednesday 21st May

Atlantic/Warner

For a band that occasionally struggles to stay on the right side of the melodrama fence (the group’s name is Death Cab for Cutie, remember), Ben Gibbard’s outfit has done a pretty remarkable job with Narrow Stairs. Rather than feeling like an over-earnest response to the rise of the single in the age of the mp3 (like quite a lot of releases have lately), Death Cab’s latest record has struck a wondrous, subtle middle ground between capitulation to the death of the album and overeager resistance. Narrow Stairs is beautifully understated and heartwarmingly self-assured.

Nothing sums up the perfect approach the band has taken to the single/album dichotomy better than the lead single. “I Will Possess Your Heart”, in its single form is a catchy, well-crafted song that can expect to get an outing on whatever television teen drama is currently flavour of the month. As the second track on Narrow Stairs, however, the song becomes a brooding, angst-ridden ode to romance from a stalker’s perspective, courtesy of a four and a half minute introduction that dovetails with the lyrical content at a level far deeper than the single version of the song.

I could go through the entire album track by track, but there’s really no point – every song is flawless, both in isolation and as part of something bigger. Through a combination of thoughtful tracklisting and simply brilliant songwriting, Death Cab for Cutie have produced a staggeringly perfect album of staggeringly perfect songs.