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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.
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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.
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Inoffensively bland offering from US indie pop outfit.
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MojoIf the imagery on this album is often solemn--ice, looming meteorological disaster, remote canyons--it isn't melodramtically so. [June 2008, p.109]
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Not the rock assault Gibbard thinks it is, but certainly more hard-hitting than ever.
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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.
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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.
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Q MagazineIt's as if, in the very best sense, they don't care any more. [June 2008, p.138]
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Death Cab mostly abandons the full-sounding multi-tracked production they preferred during their rise to primetime soap stardom, and the effect is unflattering.
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Caught between the indie-pop that they so cleverly deviated and their new found ambitious sound, Death Cab For Cutie have lost themselves.
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It's their mediocre album.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 82 out of 99
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Mixed: 9 out of 99
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Negative: 8 out of 99
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Jan 21, 2018
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Dec 15, 2012
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Oct 8, 2011