Album Review: Narrow Stairs
Narrow Stairs is quite like last year’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank by Modest Mouse. Both of these albums are follow-ups to very commercially successful releases (despite negative reactions from long time fans including myself). Both were highly anticipated. Like We Were Dead…, Narrow Stairs debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. Both were released in springtime. Perhaps with hopes of their singles becoming summertime anthems? Finally, while neither are essential albums, they are both very good.
Narrow Stair’s first single, “I Will Possess Your Heart” has been described by the band as a “ten minute Can jam”. It combines the breadth of “Transatlanticism” with the persistence of “Movie Script Ending”. If anything, the band picking an 8+ minute song as their first single is a statement against everything that Plans stood for. However, fans of the band’s softer side are not deprived on Narrow Stairs; tracks like “Your New Twin Sized Bed” seem to pick up almost exactly where “Brother’s On a Hotel Bed” left off.
“Long Division” brings a new calculation to a sound the band really hasn’t featured since Photo Album. For me, this alone makes picking on vinyl when Barsuk releases it in September.
The bottom line – This a good album by what is possibly the best songwriter/producer duo in music today. Overall, the album seems to be on middle ground much like Transatlanticism. Transatlanticism was on the verge of departure to Plans, whereas Narrow Stairs is a band’s sensible return to their roots with new tricks learned and new friends found along the way.
You can catch Death Cab for Cutie (along with most of the Ohmpark crew) on the last day of Bonnaroo. Too bad that you’ll have the sacrifice the end of Broken Social Scene’s set to catch the beginning of Death Cab for Cutie. Their sets overlap by 30 minutes.
Death Cab For Cutie : Narrow Stairs : Long Division
Buy Narrow Stairs here
Death Cab For Cutie website
- Posted by Anne Reade on June 3, 2008 at 2:08 am
