And They Carried on Like Long Division

Much has been made of the eight and a half minute epic first single from Death Cab for Cutie, I Will Possess Your Heart and its four and a half minutes of a bass line on a constant loop before a single lyric is uttered. But ironically Narrow Stairs starts right off with the voice of Ben Gibbard. In fact Bixby Canyon Bridge sounds like it could have been an unheard track off of their last album Plans. That is until the track deconstructs around the two thirty mark into a fuzzy distortion for the last nearly singer-less three minutes. Which could explain why it takes the next track, I Will Possess Your Heart took almost as long to finally find its groove.

Aside from the extended outro and intro of the first two songs, Narrow Stairs really doesn’t deviate too far from the band’s previous sound. Sure you find some more feedback on Talking Bird and the organ bounce of You Can Do Better Than Me is reminiscent of the golden era of The Beach Boys as well as the abrupt end of Pity and Fear. While the track length ranges from under two minutes to over eight.

As the music of the band evolves, the songwriting really doesn’t deviate as Gibbard’s old stand bys of love, loss, and obsession are still preeminent. The latter of course show up in I Will Possess Your Heart (how disturbingly great is that title) which could be the best song written by a stalker since Crash into Me. The ode to California wildfires Grapevine Fires is beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.

And no one is better at making depressing things sound gloomy like when he asks what became of a girl “in a hand-me-down wedding dress” on Cath… Then there is something funny yet sad about the girl in Your New Twin Sized Bed who downgrades from a queen because she just doesn’t need the extra space after realizing no one was going to it take up. But Gibbard saved the most lovelorn story for himself when he declares on You Can Do Better than Me that he can’t do better than her.

Song to Download - I Will Possess Your Heart

Narrow Stairs gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.