"Darker", "experimental" and "emotionally raw"; just some of the buzz phrases banded around by the bloggers before the May 13th release of Death Cab For Cutie's album Narrow Stairs. All of which, seem to be as useful as a CPR unit arriving at a cemetery.
So here comes the rant. Firstly, Death Cab For Cutie have never been the lightest band on the planet; they earned their fame by eloquently and accurately describing the heartaches and insecurities of Generation Y. The band is respected for this because with Ben Gibbard's lyrics and Chris Walla's melodies, they do it better than any of the eyeliner-clad bands screaming about life's mundane difficulties. Secondly, Death Cab have always been experimental, We Looked Like Giants off 2002's Transatlanticism wasn't exactly in A-A-B-A structure, and the title track, an 8-minute epic ode to long distance love took a patient 6 and a half minutes to reach its spine shuddering climax. Not exactly Top 40 material. As for emotionally raw, could they possibly top the morbid hollowness of the lyric, "love is watching someone die..." from their 2005 track, What Sarah Said?
So it's fair to say all this hype about a supposed new direction was generated purely for media attention, either that, or it was to keep the indie-rock faithfuls blinded to the fact that Death Cab For Cutie are now corporate sell-outs, sitting comfortably in the boardroom chairs of Atlantic Records. And well, whatever the motive was, it was a success, the wool was over the eyes. After releasing the 9 and a half minute single, I Will Possess Your Heart they garnered the attention of both music critics and fans alike; the internet forums buzzing about their so-called different soundscape and dangerous experimentation.
Well, whatever misconceptions were hypothesised, they all evaporated once the album was released and it became clear that the barriers of what music could be were not being broken, frankly, it was just another Death Cab For Cutie album. That isn't to say that it isn't good. It's far from good. It's brilliant. It is a fully formed masterpiece of emotional depth and chamber pop melody. With Narrow Stairs the four boys from Seattle take the production maturity of their previous record Plans, and strip it down to raw, static filled, natural beauty. It is the sound of four band members switching on the mics and amps and playing like they were a high-school band jamming in a dusty garage. The music sounds alive, and not like each song has individually and painstakingly been put through 20 takes and several months under the switchboard.
Opening track Bixby Canyon Bridge lulls its listener into thinking it is just another Death Cab lullaby before a heavily distorted guitar drops, changing the tempo and meaning of the song. The frustrated guitar strums mimic Ben's lyrics as he illustrates his fruitless search for meaning and any sort of enlightenment at Bixby Canyon, declaring "i want to know my fate, if i keep up this way." The song's progression both melodically and lyrically intensifies as his hopes of being inspired by the serene environment silently crashes down in front of him with the realisation there's no divine epiphany to be had. The allusions to Jack Kerouak, the famous beat writer who escaped to Bixby Canyon to write Big Sur are subtle yet telling, as Ben tries to tap into the mystical atmosphere, conceding, "i trudge back to where the car is parked, no closer to any kind of truth as i must only assume was the case with you."
Many critics in the past have commented on Gibbard's likeness to a young Bob Dylan, not in social conscience but moreso articulation and vision. Chief songwriter for the band, Gibbard is blessed with the ability to convey the disturbances of people's souls, describing emotional torment and tragedy with vivid detail and accuracy. Though with that being said, Death Cab For Cutie are not a band that deal with the extremities of love and hate or death and life; rather they explore the inner complications of these existences. For this, some cynics label Ben a depressing pessimist, but his uncompromising honesty about human nature and insight into normally unchartered emotional terrain in popular music is what secures his reputation as one of the few lyrical geniuses of the 21st century.
This is most prominently seen in the song Cath... which ventures into familiar Gibbard territory, exploring yet another emotion that would usually be all too complicated for most songwriters to grasp. The song tells the story of a young girl who is falling into the wrong marriage, vividly describing the wedding day; "the well intentioned man", "the hand-me-down wedding dress" and "the whispers that it won't last" paint a pitiful portrait. The painful inaction in the lyrics expressing the hopelessness of the girl "who holds a smile like someone would hold a crying child." The observations of a tainted celebration epitomising Ben's ability to write complex narratives into hook-filled melodies, as the final lines tell of his personal pity and understanding at Cath's position confiding, "i'd have done the same as you..."
Grapevine Fires, the most melodically beautiful of all eleven vignettes trots along with Chris Walla's off-beat piano soothing its listener in atmospheric space, reminiscent of previous album (and career) highlight Brothers on a Hotel Bed. It is a simple tale of watching a young girl play in a graveyard behind the backdrop of Los Angeles bush fires, yet it is in this simplicity that the band finds its most emotionally affecting moment. Juxtaposing the happy nïavity of youth with the destruction of the fires, a message resembling 'carpe diem' lies just beneath the surface of the song's narrative as Ben warns, "it's only a matter of time until we all burn". And as he muses his thoughts like they are floating in his head, wistfully and detached, his resignation is balanced by a resound security, speaking words like an old sage, "that everything will be alright." Such calmness in the face of disaster mirrors the ominous melody of the track and shows the wisdom of a man who has weathered the pain of loss and accepts the inevitability of destruction.
Though in the end the fault of Narrow Stairs is that it cannot maintain the subtly in language and metaphor Grapevine Fires shows the potential for. Your New Twin Size Bed and the closing track, The Ice is Getting Thinner are both centered around basic and obvious metaphors for love-loss. And with Death Cab's catalogue filled with so many deeper and smarter tracks based on that same theme, Tiny Vessels and Title & Registration to name just two, there just isn't room for mediocrity on such a clichéd subject in popular music.
Still, such nitpicking is merely a product of trying to find a fault in a band who, with each album is setting the benchmark for what pop music should be in the 21st century. Narrow Stairs is a catchy, intelligent and serious pop record, one that should be hailed for its melodic complexity as much as its lyrical intensity and melancholy. Sadness in all its forms, never sounded so sweet.
A
So here comes the rant. Firstly, Death Cab For Cutie have never been the lightest band on the planet; they earned their fame by eloquently and accurately describing the heartaches and insecurities of Generation Y. The band is respected for this because with Ben Gibbard's lyrics and Chris Walla's melodies, they do it better than any of the eyeliner-clad bands screaming about life's mundane difficulties. Secondly, Death Cab have always been experimental, We Looked Like Giants off 2002's Transatlanticism wasn't exactly in A-A-B-A structure, and the title track, an 8-minute epic ode to long distance love took a patient 6 and a half minutes to reach its spine shuddering climax. Not exactly Top 40 material. As for emotionally raw, could they possibly top the morbid hollowness of the lyric, "love is watching someone die..." from their 2005 track, What Sarah Said?
So it's fair to say all this hype about a supposed new direction was generated purely for media attention, either that, or it was to keep the indie-rock faithfuls blinded to the fact that Death Cab For Cutie are now corporate sell-outs, sitting comfortably in the boardroom chairs of Atlantic Records. And well, whatever the motive was, it was a success, the wool was over the eyes. After releasing the 9 and a half minute single, I Will Possess Your Heart they garnered the attention of both music critics and fans alike; the internet forums buzzing about their so-called different soundscape and dangerous experimentation.
Well, whatever misconceptions were hypothesised, they all evaporated once the album was released and it became clear that the barriers of what music could be were not being broken, frankly, it was just another Death Cab For Cutie album. That isn't to say that it isn't good. It's far from good. It's brilliant. It is a fully formed masterpiece of emotional depth and chamber pop melody. With Narrow Stairs the four boys from Seattle take the production maturity of their previous record Plans, and strip it down to raw, static filled, natural beauty. It is the sound of four band members switching on the mics and amps and playing like they were a high-school band jamming in a dusty garage. The music sounds alive, and not like each song has individually and painstakingly been put through 20 takes and several months under the switchboard.
Opening track Bixby Canyon Bridge lulls its listener into thinking it is just another Death Cab lullaby before a heavily distorted guitar drops, changing the tempo and meaning of the song. The frustrated guitar strums mimic Ben's lyrics as he illustrates his fruitless search for meaning and any sort of enlightenment at Bixby Canyon, declaring "i want to know my fate, if i keep up this way." The song's progression both melodically and lyrically intensifies as his hopes of being inspired by the serene environment silently crashes down in front of him with the realisation there's no divine epiphany to be had. The allusions to Jack Kerouak, the famous beat writer who escaped to Bixby Canyon to write Big Sur are subtle yet telling, as Ben tries to tap into the mystical atmosphere, conceding, "i trudge back to where the car is parked, no closer to any kind of truth as i must only assume was the case with you."
Many critics in the past have commented on Gibbard's likeness to a young Bob Dylan, not in social conscience but moreso articulation and vision. Chief songwriter for the band, Gibbard is blessed with the ability to convey the disturbances of people's souls, describing emotional torment and tragedy with vivid detail and accuracy. Though with that being said, Death Cab For Cutie are not a band that deal with the extremities of love and hate or death and life; rather they explore the inner complications of these existences. For this, some cynics label Ben a depressing pessimist, but his uncompromising honesty about human nature and insight into normally unchartered emotional terrain in popular music is what secures his reputation as one of the few lyrical geniuses of the 21st century.
This is most prominently seen in the song Cath... which ventures into familiar Gibbard territory, exploring yet another emotion that would usually be all too complicated for most songwriters to grasp. The song tells the story of a young girl who is falling into the wrong marriage, vividly describing the wedding day; "the well intentioned man", "the hand-me-down wedding dress" and "the whispers that it won't last" paint a pitiful portrait. The painful inaction in the lyrics expressing the hopelessness of the girl "who holds a smile like someone would hold a crying child." The observations of a tainted celebration epitomising Ben's ability to write complex narratives into hook-filled melodies, as the final lines tell of his personal pity and understanding at Cath's position confiding, "i'd have done the same as you..."
Grapevine Fires, the most melodically beautiful of all eleven vignettes trots along with Chris Walla's off-beat piano soothing its listener in atmospheric space, reminiscent of previous album (and career) highlight Brothers on a Hotel Bed. It is a simple tale of watching a young girl play in a graveyard behind the backdrop of Los Angeles bush fires, yet it is in this simplicity that the band finds its most emotionally affecting moment. Juxtaposing the happy nïavity of youth with the destruction of the fires, a message resembling 'carpe diem' lies just beneath the surface of the song's narrative as Ben warns, "it's only a matter of time until we all burn". And as he muses his thoughts like they are floating in his head, wistfully and detached, his resignation is balanced by a resound security, speaking words like an old sage, "that everything will be alright." Such calmness in the face of disaster mirrors the ominous melody of the track and shows the wisdom of a man who has weathered the pain of loss and accepts the inevitability of destruction.
Though in the end the fault of Narrow Stairs is that it cannot maintain the subtly in language and metaphor Grapevine Fires shows the potential for. Your New Twin Size Bed and the closing track, The Ice is Getting Thinner are both centered around basic and obvious metaphors for love-loss. And with Death Cab's catalogue filled with so many deeper and smarter tracks based on that same theme, Tiny Vessels and Title & Registration to name just two, there just isn't room for mediocrity on such a clichéd subject in popular music.
Still, such nitpicking is merely a product of trying to find a fault in a band who, with each album is setting the benchmark for what pop music should be in the 21st century. Narrow Stairs is a catchy, intelligent and serious pop record, one that should be hailed for its melodic complexity as much as its lyrical intensity and melancholy. Sadness in all its forms, never sounded so sweet.
A
