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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Narrow Stairs
by Death Cab For Cutie


7.9

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 38 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

The indie rockers' follow-up to their platinum album "Plans" features an eight-and-a-half-minute-long song.

LABEL:	Atlantic
RELEASE DATE:	13 May 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock, Indie, Pop

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Narrow Stairs finds Death Cab comfortable with all aspects of its musical personality--and on top of them all.

Under The Radar

Narrow Stairs proves that with Death Cab For Cutie, it's possible to relax and let them do their own thing. Which is a remarkable thing indeed. [Spring 2008, p.75]

Boston Globe

This time out the musical gambles are bolder and the outcome proportionally more dramatic.

Spin

While that may sound dangerously morose, Death Cab have become skilled with the light/dark juxtaposition.

Rolling Stone

Gibbard's indie-rock blues still plumb emotional depths with remarkable literary detail.

Tiny Mix Tapes

Narrow Stairs is the sound of a band falling in love with the concept of sound; as such, Gibbard’s stately lyricism largely takes a backseat--although his voice has never sounded more different and varied.

All Music Guide

Narrow Stairs is far from desperate, however, and the album's willingness to steer Death Cab into unfamiliar territory (or, to reference an earlier lyric, "into the dark"), is by far its strongest asset.

Billboard

The songs here hit with a full-on assault of crunching guitar riffs, distorted, cracked vocals and walls of disorienting feedback, while lyrically, frontman Ben Gibbard visits the moodier and darker corners of his mind.

The Guardian

The quartet are more impressive, and moving, when they try less hard.

Alternative Press

The real reason narrow Stairs works so well is that despite the band's more esoteric experiments, they still contribute standalone pop hits. [June 2008, p.125]

Blender

This LP, which matches "Transatlanticism" as Death Cab's best. [June 2008, p.71]

Hartford Courant

It's by no means a cheery album, but Narrow Stairs shows Death Cab for Cutie has overcome its major-label jitters and resumed making vital music.

Observer Music Monthly

While Narrow Stairs may scale down the melody-assaults of previous efforts, with their fresh groove and whiff of rebellion, Death Cab announce themselves as genuine rock stars.

Uncut

This is the sound of a band surprising itself. [July 2008, p.92]

Entertainment Weekly

A lesser band would shadow Gibbard's woe with their shoulders hunched. Instead, Death Cab's ebullience makes this a redemptive work about sadness.

Paste Magazine

When Gibbard gets out of his own head, the confrontation between his tuneful optimism and the real world can yield an exhilarating dramatic tension.

Delusions of Adequacy

On its own, it has some great moments, and it is a very good pop/rock record.

Filter

Throughout Narrow Stairs, the band allows itself to open up, twisting and tinkering the same old style to their liking with mixed results. [Spring 2008, p.90]

PopMatters

It may not be perfect, but it was certainly worth the wait.

Lost At Sea

Ben Gibbard has shown growth which each successive release, and made the jump to hooky pop-songsmith with the Postal Service's (apparently) one-off collaboration, but Narrow Stairs feels stagnant, devoid of even the superficial pleasures present on Plans.

NOW Magazine

Not the rock assault Gibbard thinks it is, but certainly more hard-hitting than ever.

Pitchfork

At times, the maturation feels forced; the more adventurous moments here are experimental only for such a high-profile group, and they don't play to Gibbard's sentimental, word-weighing strengths.

Prefix Magazine

Narrow Stairs finds Gibbard more than willing to play to type, offering the same staid character sketches he’s used since his first EP and songs that reiterate his point, that, like, love can be rough on you.

Sputnikmusic

Caught between the indie-pop that they so cleverly deviated and their new found ambitious sound, Death Cab For Cutie have lost themselves.

Mojo

If the imagery on this album is often solemn--ice, looming meteorological disaster, remote canyons--it isn't melodramtically so. [June 2008, p.109]

Q Magazine

It's as if, in the very best sense, they don't care any more. [June 2008, p.138]

cokemachineglow

It’s a predictable formula, a majority of the tracks building to a triumphant climax set to an egg timer, peppered with forced witticisms, seemingly culled from Postsecret, that have reached a new apex of laziness.

Hot Press

Inoffensively bland offering from US indie pop outfit.

Slant Magazine

Death Cab mostly abandons the full-sounding multi-tracked production they preferred during their rise to primetime soap stardom, and the effect is unflattering.

Village Voice

It's their mediocre album.

Austin Chronicle

Perhaps if there were more self-exploration and less chemical dependency on the old standby, heartbreak, Narrow Stairs wouldn't sound, to paraphrase the band, like settling.

The average user rating for this album is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 38 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Colin G gave it a6:
When I read that the official Death Cab fan club had reacted negatively to this new release, I knew that it had some promise. And I'm really happy to see Death Cab coming back to the promise that they showed on "Transatlanticism" but, unlike that album, many of the tracks on this one fail to continue the momentum that the more introspective ones introduce. When listening, skipping around a bit actually makes the album sound much better. The opener, "Bixby Canyon Bridge," opens up an atmospheric layer to the album, as you follow the lyrics under the namesake Big Sur bridge to the ocean, carried on by the following "I Will Possess Your Heart," a track which has received so much negative attention for being long and drawn-out. I will admit that the bassline becomes a bit monotonous, but it also works well to set up the drama in the rest of the song. But, after that, things fall apart. Skipping onto "Cath..." and then to "Grapevine Fires" would be best if you liked the first two tracks, as it almost as if tracks like "Long Division" and "No Sunlight" were added to placate the more pop-friendly fans that joined the party on "Plans." But kudos to the band for actually writing an album that their fan-base will likely pan as too ethereal and spaced (read: boring). It indicates that there remains hope for a band that many had thought lost to the MTV/Clear Channel money machine. Maybe the next album.

Spencer V gave it a9:
I just don't get what critics want from this band. This is another Death Cab masterpiece.

Tom H. gave it an8:
Unexpected excellent album.

ae gave it a10:
Joseph- no way. transantlantisism or photo album is their best. and Chad - such great heights is postal service, not death cab. Weirdfish - my god you insult me they are NOT emo... and Sam - if Cath is any song it is death of an interior decorator, not tiny vessels. Fools.

milli gave it an8:
Well - this album is great. very sad though - all the songs have a great sadness to them. almost feels similar to something about airplanes - and gibbard's voice sounds a little different, but i can't put my finger on it. I'm flying interstate to see them in august. ..providing I can get a ticket as the freakin OC made my fave indie alternative band popular!!! grrr.

Limey Q. gave it a2:
The most disappointing album of the year so far. Mediocre songs played clumsily with cheesy lyrics and bad arrangements. They sound like a second rate Wilco at their worst.

Colin B. gave it a9:
Almost the masterpiece that was Transatlanticism, Narrow Stairs sticks to your ears like peanut butter as it bounces proudly between consistently excellent tracks. Unlike the wildly inconsistent "Plans" from 2005, There are no missteps here. Favorites include the unpredictable yet exhilarating "Bixby Canyon Bridge," the pop perfection of "Cath," the haunting "Grapevine Fires," and the sad, solemn, and intriguing "The Ice Is Getting Thinner," a less catchy but more gripping version of "I Will Follow You Into the Dark." I'm not too bothered by the silly conclusion of "Pity and Fear," which seems to have everyone else rattled, but to me it is the only smudge on an otherwise solid album. Definitely a refreshing album in what has been an otherwise poor musical year.

Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie

Narrow Stairs
by Death Cab For Cutie