I descended a dusty gravel ridge / Beneath the Bixby Canyon bridge / Until I eventually arrived / At the place where your soul had died. So starts perennial softcore American band
Death Cab For Cutie's fifth full length
Narrow Stairs. Once again singer/songwriter Ben Gibbard ruminates on love, lost love, and uh...hate love, over the bands hold on skittery rhythms and sometimes powerful, but often awkwardly dramatic indie rock.
Produced by guitarist Chris Walla,
Narrow Stairs is, at least, a welcome step away from safe major label debut
Plans. Marred by overproduction and lacking the spark and reach of independent high watermark
Transatlanticism,
Plans sounded like a band, if not neutered, then cautiously coddling their sound for mass resonance. Maybe it's bigger shows, festivals, (comfy wallets?) or a reactionary move, but on
Narrow Stairs they've learned to dial up the grit again. Or as gritty as songs still trading in teenage metaphors will allow.
Satisfyingly moody opener 'Bixby Canyon Bridge' is followed by the audacious eight and a half minute 'I Will Possess Your Heart'. Gibbard's take on an 'Every Breath You Take' stalker/love type narrative. It's a snappy first single and sounds like a bold move from the band on paper...except the first, completely flat and unnecessary four minutes go nowhere. 'Talking Bird' is the first tune to near shake the 'obvious' tag; a slow, brooding march follows Gibbard's sweet but saccharine 'bird' as 'girlfriend/love' metaphor.
"It's all here for you as along as you don't fly away" et al.
Gibbard can be a gifted lyricist when he ruminates on his own observations rather than trying to inhabit others. Like the music, too often it gets bogged down in it's own perceived importance. But no matter your taste, all Death Cab For Cutie albums manage their classics. 'Grapevine Fires' is such one; a rolling, melodious song that spills easily through its four minutes into 'Your New Twin Sized' - which bears a striking resemblance to
Blur's 'Good Song', both musically and in rudimentary song titles.
For all their grand talk of "experimental shifts" and "insane" new directions,
Narrow Stairs and Death Cab generally, are anything but. They're the reliably safe and solid option; paperback motifs transferred to high-school observations. The band are confident and at times stellar, and there's no doubt Gibbard has the ability to paint a vivid setting and cut to the quick of such emotions - see "Tiny Vessels" from
Transatlanticism or the effortlessly evocative "Track 1" from
We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes. But despite their enjoyable perfection of the 4 minute indie-college song, it's becoming a tiresome mine to source for a band eleven years into their career.