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| Artist: Death Cab For Cutie
Label: Atlantic
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $6.49
You Save: $12.49 (66%)
New (66) Used (24) from $6.49
Rating:  99 reviews
Sales Rank: 143
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 452796
UPC: 075678994654
EAN: 0075678994654
ASIN: B0017I1RH4
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Downbeat, Repetitive & Drony May 14, 2008
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
I loved their last CD (Plans) but this one is a big step backwards. Most songs use the same tempo (slow), beat you to death by using the same notes/chords over-and-over-and-over-and-over (and over!) and exhibit very little of the songcraft that made Plans so enjoyable.
Narrow Stairs, Wider Sound May 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Some of us who listened to Death Cab For Cutie albums before the radio told everyone else to do the same lamented the predictable excess of watered-down ballads their major label debut served up, a self-conscious "now we need to sound like the band they signed" paranoia that provoked the most claustrophobic production job of Chris Walla's career, exchanging the bite of The Photo Album for the blather of Plans, the hard nose of "That's Incentive" for the glass jaw of "Someday You Will Be Loved." "It would be nice if a band reaching for a larger audience had a sound that matched that sense of ambition," Pitchfork complained at the time.
As song after song on Narrow Stairs demonstrates, the boys heard the criticism, and they're fighting back with mixed success. Though the album indulges some of the same water balloons and vapor the band packed into Plans, its more rewarding moments unleash a brazenness they haven't displayed since Gibbard put out a cassette called You Can Play These Songs With Chords. "I hope this album is a bit of a surprise for those out there that think they have us all figured out," Cab bassist Nick Harmer boasts.
That's fine, but the gripes that greeted their Atlantic debut a few years back were born not of boredom, but of affection for the band that Harmer & Friends left behind at Barsuk. Long before they turned to the ballads-by-the-numbers formula of Plans, they brewed organic indie-pop collections that sported as many teeth as tears, an occasional crunch of guitar intruding to toughen the tempo. Plans, by contrast, sounded too much like a stump speech for President of Emo-Nation than a Death Cab album, drenched in the weepy whispers and atmospherics that give Emo a bad name.
Confronting the confines of a major label's conservative vision this time around, they depart more dramatically than ever from the band we knew just four years ago, with its 8-minute singles ("I Will Possess Your Heart") and African drums ("Pity and Fear"). Something genuinely engaging happens on the admittedly charming "You Can Do Better Than Me," a clamor of Christmas bells and organ carrying the song to destinations no Death Cab album's gone before. And the sonically massive "Pity and Fear," for all its theatrics and distortion, features one of the grittiest vocal performances of Gibbard's career, the edges of his fragile croon roughened by a morbid and memorable attitude.
This is clearly not the Death Cab For Cutie you listened to in high school. We can cue the usual cliches here about maturity and evolution, but ultimately Narrow Stairs is a conflicted-if beautiful-document of divergent creative paths. Familiar shades of Plans flicker amid the flames of a visionary angst that that album hardly even sniffed, and the band seems invested enough in those newer horizons to dig up more where that came from next time around. In the aftermath of such historic transformations as bands like Wilco and Radiohead have undergone, Narrow Stairs suggests that we may be witnessing another musical metamorphosis in the making-one with the rare potential to break its own ground.
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Heading Up Narrow Stairs May 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I think this a great cd for Death Cab and allowed them to change there sound just a bit without losing their touch. More dark and sad then any past CD, i was excited to see Death Cab tackle a more depressing side. My expectations soared, and i must say for the most part they delivered.
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge - I enjoyed the song during my first listen, but it wasnt until my second listen that i really listened to what the song was about. Based on Ben Gibbard trying to head out to a location to look for inspiration where another had found some. He arrives with high hopes, but soon relises that nothing was really there. He waits for someone to speak out to him, but noboby does. One of my Favorites off the CD. 5/5
2. I Will Possess Your Heart - Good song but depends on my mood. The four minute musical opener can either be a fantasic ride, or test your patience before you fast forward to the actual song within. Once you finally get to the song its actually quite good, but creepy. I mean its the nicest, and most charming song about a stalker... 4/5
3. No Sunlight - A solid track, with a poppy beat and dark under tone. Losing optimism never sounded better and felt more real. 3.5/5
4. Cath... - Easily one of my favorite songs on the CD. Amazing melody, amazing lyrics and a story some can relate to. Settling for less when you deserve better, and knowing it. 5/5
5. Talking Bird - This song is the hardest song for me to listen to on the CD. I mean nothing is really wrong with it, but nothing impresses me in this song. It goes no where and is quite a bore. 2/5
6. You Can Do Better Than Me - Death Cab meets Beetles. Personally not crazy about it as a song indivually, but its a great fit in the CD. Long Enough to change the mood of the CD for a moment, but short enough to not push its boundries 4/5
7. Grapevine Fires - A more matured classic Death Cab. Fantasic song, one of my favs. When i read about a song about the wildfires in California, was a little worried. But it turned out great, and the lyrics are amazing. 5/5
8. Your New Twin Sized Bed - Now if i HAD to pick a favorite song on this CD, this would be it. The song is about a man who gives up on love, relising that it would never come, so he gets rid of his queen bed for a twin. The Opening line says it best. "You look so defeated lying there in your new twin sized bed"
9. Long Division - Another Solid track, and id say the least depressing/sad song on the CD. Very Poppy, and rocks out the hardest on the CD. 4/5
10. Pity and Fear - The first time i heard this, i was like "This is Death Cab?". Nice dark tones but basic lyrics. Personally i think this track should have spent a little more time on the drawing board, because it has great potential, but falls short. Still not a bad song, but you get the feeling that they kinda lost out a chance to make something better. 3/5
11. The Ice Is Getting Thinner - The PERFECT ending to the CD. Basically about a couple bound to fail and its only a matter of time before the ice cracks. You cant help feeling helpless. 5/5
Not the best CD by Death Cab, but a great addition to the collection.
Life Cab May 13, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
After the first time thru I would have rated this album just three stars, but it's kinda growing on me. I like the apt and easy song lyrics. I like various small and subtle production elements, such as the way the lead guitar moves in and around the vocals, sometimes joining, on tunes like "Pity and Fear." And there are various other things on Stairs I appreciate. There's no magnificent tragedy on the new CD to rival "Transatlanticism," but then what ever could? Stairs does have the similarly epic (and slow-building) "I Will Possess Your Heart," but it's quietly optimistic where "Trans..." is all heartbreak and sorrow. For those who felt let down after their first listen, give the disc another try and see what you think. Oh, and by the way, the CD booklet is another minor but cool work of art, something the download-only folks will miss I guess.
 Not all that impressed May 13, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed Plans and The Photo album, so I was really looking forward to this CD. Maybe it's one of those albums that need several listens before the songs grow on you, but so far after two times of playing through the CD, I'm not really liking it much. The first single "I Will Possess Your Heart" is just sort of meh, the other songs didn't really stand out to me like so many on past albums have.
I'm wishing I had waited for a friend to buy this so I could have borrowed it instead of buying preordering it only to be so let down.
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