Album Review: Death Cab For Cutie - “Narrow Stairs” (Atlantic)

Like some people and Jesus, I have a close personal relationship with Death Cab For Cutie. With an almost eerie sense of timing, they’ve managed to release the perfect album for any number of critical points in my, and many of my peers, adolescence. The Photo Album (Barsuk) was one of the first non-radio albums I “discovered.” Transatlanticism (Barsuk) got worn out on my first car’s shitty CD player. Plans (Atlantic) was the only thing that relieved the homesickness of my freshman year of college. Basically, I will love this band until Ben Gibbard starts singing about the ironic fallibility of Depends and how his grandkids never come visit him anymore. However, despite the utterly inappropriate journalistic bias, Narrow Stairs (Atlantic) doesn’t quite live up to the standard of work the band has previously put out.
More after the jump.

