Narrow Stairs isn't so narrow

I was not one of the indie kids who knew about Death Cab back when they made "You Can Play These Songs With Chords," or whatever the name of one of their old albums was. No, I first learned about them when a friend lent me a copy of "Plans." I heard "Marching Bands of Manhattan" coming out of the speakers, and that was it. I liked them. Some of their songs, I liked a lot.

Since then, I've gone back and listened to bits of the other albums, including the entirety of "Transatlanticism." I have also liked a lot (although not all) of their other stuff, particularly the song "The New Year." Plans is still my favorite album, and Marching Bands is still probably my favorite song on the album.

All of that basically to say that I am a casual, not hard-core, fan of Death Cab. Nevertheless, I was excited to listen to Narrow Stairs, even though the single did absolutely nothing for me.

I mean, "I Will Possess Your Heart" grew on me a little after a while, but ultimately it is still just a pretty good bassline with other instrumentation that manages to be sometimes not boring. The lyrics are pretty good, but there aren't enough of them. The creepy stalker dude needs to be developed more.

Anyway, the main thing that everyone seems to commenting on about this album is how dark it is. I've seen the word "despairing" used more than once. While I wouldn't go nearly that far, it definitely was not written at a happy time for Ben Gibbard.

While a lot of their other work has been characterized by this odd kind of melancholy hopefulness, this one is just kind of depressing. However, it's not one of those depressing albums that people have to force themselves to enjoy. While the lyrics can be real downers sometimes, the music keeps things just light enough for us to keep listening and enjoying.

The album starts out on a sombre note with Bixby Canyon Bridge, a song about Gibbard trying to commune with his favorite (also: dead) author, Jack Kerouac. Gibbard's character is slightly haunted by his failure to do so and at his inability to find any real answers. "I trudged back to where the car was parked. No closer to any kind of truth, as I must assume was the case with you." Sad, but beautifully expressed.

Gibbard promised that he would make his lyrics more intelligible, and he does so with great effect on this album. He doesn't sacrifice the beauty of his songwriting; he just makes it so that you understand what he's trying to say. It's probably the best improvement that this album makes.

After the aforementioned stalker single, there's the song "No Sunlight." It's pretty catchy, but it is one of the several songs on the album that confuses the listener's senses.

While putting a sad song to happy music can work sometimes (see the excellent "Fifteen Candles" by Jars of Clay), oftentimes it works against the lyrics. It was hard to feel bad for Gibbard's predicament of being all sad because there's no sunlight while the music was so darn ... well ... sunny. There are actually several songs on the album that are this way, which is probably the album's biggest fault. While it works on the excellent "Cath...," a song about a woman entering a loveless marriage, it doesn't work so well for "No Sunlight," "Long Division" or "You Could Do Better Than Me" (actually, I'm still not sure if that last one is actually supposed to be happy or not).

However, the confusing lyric/music juxtaposition of a few songs notwithstanding, the album really is a good listen. Gibbard's voice has improved since Plans, especially noteworthy on the last song "The Ice Is Getting Thinner." However, my favorite song on the album is "Your New Twin Sized Bed." The jangly beat of the song isn't quite cheerful, and the lyrics manage to be slightly humorous while expressing the apprehension of loneliness, a big theme on the album.

In short: I like it. If you don't have the money, at least find a place to listen to Bixby Canyon Bridge, The Ice is Getting Thinner and Your New Twin Sized Bed.