Narrow Stairs

The difference between the songs on Death Cab for Cutie's latest album, Narrow Stairs, and the songs in the rest of their catalogue is that the new ones just aren't as good.

When I first bought the cd this afternoon, I listened to the first minute or two of each song before skipping through the whole album. The fourth song on Narrow Stairs, "Cath...", did stick out at first, butsome suspect moments. Like I said in an earlier post about the first single off Narrow Stairs, "I Will Posses Your Heart," the lyrics are weak, rhyming absent, and the music uninteresting and uncharacteristic.

"Grapevine fires", really good visual lyrics. Nice mellow song.

"Bixby Canyon Bridge", eh, ok. Just one question: When did Ben Gibbard become this supposed second-coming of Jack Kerouac? I liked "Couches in Alleys", and this song's ok, but come on. No one wants to hear literary criticism when they buy an album. At least I don't.

"No Sunlight" would have been better if they left it as the slowed down, acoustic demo version that can be found online.

"Cath" is definately the album's standout. Sadly the rest of the album's tracks fail to rekindle any of Death Cab's now somewhat stale charm and ultimately call Gibbard's songwriting into question.