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Death Cab for Cutie
List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $7.27
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Product Details

  • Artist: Death Cab for Cutie
  • Binding: Audio CD
  • EAN: 0075678994654
  • Label: Atlantic
  • Language: French
  • Manufacturer: Atlantic
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Product Group: Music
  • Publisher: Atlantic
  • Release Date: 2008-05-13
  • Studio: Atlantic
  • Title: Narrow Stairs
  • UPC: 075678994654
Avg Customer Rating: 4 stars

Product Description: Narrow Stairs might be the first album recorded by Death Cab for Cutie since Ben Gibbard's former solo project went unexpectedly stratospheric, but Gibbard hasn't let it go to his head. Oh, OK, maybe a little: lead-off single "I Will Possess Your Heart" is an eight minute jam that speeds off on one long, luminous curve before Gibbard's distinctive vocals swing in, sweet and plaintive as ever. Even when indulging their grander visions, though, Death Cab for Cutie are still familiar as the same band that wrote those fragile, winsome songs back before teen drama The OC came knocking. Never knowingly overstated, built from driving rhythms, flourishes of piano and intricate melodies, Narrow Stairs builds grand, emotionally loaded narratives from small, subtle parts. "Your New Twin Sized Bed" hides a deftly articulated tale of heartbreak and loneliness amidst soothing tangles of guitar, while "You Can Do Better than Me" is a sweet miniature that's part Pet Sounds orchestration, part wistful Dear John. This isn't, as Gibbard would previously hint, a dissonant or especially adventurous album. It proves, however, that Death Cab can extend their scope without diluting the pathos or energy of their music, and it not only sounds great, but bodes well for the future. --Louis Pattison


Customer Reviews


1 stars Don't waste your time or money.
Death Cab for Cutie has always been an all-time favorite of mine. They were my very first concert.

I was ecstatic when I heard that they were finally coming out with a new album.

I couldn't have been more disappointed. Not even one song stood out on the ENTIRE CD.

Oh, Death Cab. Please, give us something decent next time. Please.


2 stars Monotonous and bland, yet surprisingly boring
This is the complete opposite of the Death Cab I know and love. What happened to melody? What happened to diversity? Each song seems blandly the same, monotonous, and (gasp!) downright BORRRINGGGG!

I saw them live in L.A. a while back, and their energy and effort blew me away. I even chatted with Ben backstage, and his charisma and joy was impressive. Too bad they didn't translate that into this album....


4 stars Rocky but good.
This record is definitely a departure from their previous works. Rockier and with more jam sessions but still very good.


1 stars Marionettes for the Music Box
Trash.
Unremarkable, forgettable garbage.
Never has going through the motions been so adeptly portrayed in song.
There is not a single worthwhile composition, suggesting that, like many who get doused with popularity, the band doesn't have the artistic wherewithal to keep a record label from dictating every melodic sweep and gesture with the twitch of a wrist.
I tried valiantly to stick with Death Cab through the stilted, meta-production of Plans and the meadering dissonance of Transatlanticism.
But it is now official that the band has been permanently led astray from the mystical, albeit morose, ingenuity that engendered "Something About Airplanes."
Though it saddens me, I cannot follow Gibbard into the dark.
If anyone has an address for the band, let me know. I'd like to return my copy to sender.


4 stars Only what I expected from Death Cab
This CD is pretty typical of Death Cab. It's not really anything out of the ordinary, but every song is great. It's one of those CDs you just keep in the car and listen to forever and always find a song that was a hidden favorite.


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