Simply put, Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs is what music is all about. All eleven tracks, from the rhyming “Bixby Canyon Bridge” to the soft yet entrancing “The Ice is Getting Thinner,” reveal to the listener a doorway to a place where vocals do not just provide words to a song–they are there as a vital piece of the instrumentation and wholeness of the song. Death Cab is comprised of a guitarist in Chris Walla, a bassist in Nick Hammer, a drummer in Jason McGerr, and the lead vocalist, guitarist, and pianist in Benjamin Gibbard. Although one can sit and review the meanings behind the emotion embedded within each track, this is not my mission. It is far more worthy to discuss Gibbard’s attempt at going against the status quo and creating a spectacular album that shines in almost every way.
Continue after the break.
Gibbard has great range in his voice, allowing for slow, emotional songs and far-reaching highs in upbeat songs to complement each other throughout the album. When you listen to each track all the way through one after the other, you start to sense Gibbard’s vocals meshing idealistically with the instruments that comprise the melodies of each song. For example, on the track “You Can Do Better than Me,” the instrumentals of the song are very marching band-esque, with a heavy bass and a slow to medium tempo. The beat begins, and Gibbard’s vocals slowly and quietly begin: “I’m starting to feel; We stay together out of fear; of dying alone. I’ve been slipping through the years; My old clothes don’t fit like they once did; So they hang like ghosts of the people I’ve been.” The emphasis on “feel” and “years” is on purpose; with those words Gibbard stretches them out with a high note in a very soft and powerful way that brings you into the music like nothing I’ve experienced before I listened to it. [Preview this below] Unlike many popular songs today, Death Cab’s solid melodies are in the foreground (not the background) and Gibbard’s rhyming and scheming vocals harmonize perfectly with them.
[audio:06 DCFC-You Can Do Better Than Me.mp3]
A notable and popular track off the album is the first single “I Will Possess Your Heart.” Although it did receive much radio play, this song received a Grammy nomination due to the positive appraisal of it’s 4 minute 32 second instrumental opening which obviously was cut from the radio version. Gibbard’s repetitious transfixtion on the recurrent verse magnificently adds to the choral hum of the song: “You gotta spend some time, love; You gotta spend some time with me; And I know that you’ll find love; I will possess your heart.” [Preview this below] Another prominent track is the despair-filled “Grapevine Fires.” The accompanying animated music video for it is an emotional (and somewhat disturbing) work of art. Gibbard was inspired to write this song from his encounters with the 2007 california wildfires.
[audio:02 DCFC-I Will Possess Your Heart.mp3]At the end of the day, Death Cab for Cutie is an indie rock band with an extremely talented vocalist and lyrisist who brilliantly adds to the overall effectiveness of their latest album Narrow Stairs. Many may describe Gibbard’s voice “strange” during an initial listen, but after time his voice will grow on those quick to label someone “normal” or “different;” his voice seems to eventually entangle with the melody in a way that results in what can only be described as “great music.”
If you happen to enjoy Narrow Stairs, be sure to listen to Death Cab’s newly released EP, The Open Door. It contains four new tracks (and one demo version of Narrow Stairs’ “Talking Bird”) that are a perfect extension of its bigger brother LP. The bluesy “Little Bribes” is fantastic. [Preview it below] Click here to preview and download Narrow Stairs (and here for The Open Door) on iTunes. Also, be sure to check after the break to see the music video for “Grapevine Fires.”
[audio:01 DCFC-Little Bribes.mp3]