User Score
Generally favorable reviews- based on 99 Ratings
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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milliMay 29, 2008Well - 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.
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ChadS.May 17, 2008
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aeMay 29, 2008Joseph- 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.
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SpencerVJun 5, 2008I just don't get what critics want from this band. This is another Death Cab masterpiece.
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RickyK.May 13, 2008
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SeanP.May 13, 2008The first two songs alone make the album worth buying but it gets better and better with each listen. Definitely between a 7-8. Not as beautiful as Transatlanticism but a lot more rocking than Plans. Great to get into their old material too. I wasn't a huge fan until this album, then I went backwards through their discography. Very accessible if you give it a few listens.
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DarrenR.May 14, 2008Amazing, enough said.
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LukeD.May 14, 2008Great album shows some creativity on the side of Death Cab. They have branched out into a heavier and, sorry to restate, raw sound. It is quite obvious that the group has not run out of inspiration. From the eerie-yet-soothing track Bixby Canyon Bridge to the end of the album, the creativity is evident and the sound is fresh.
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SteveF.May 18, 2008I'm not a huge fan of the band but this album is worth checking out. Some excellent song writing skills! I really love the song 'Pity and Fear'. And also 'I Will Possess Your Heart' is very captivating.
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PercyH.May 18, 2008Better than Plans, and on par with Transatlanticism. Most comparable to Transatlanticism and We Have the Facts. Highly recommended. Gibbard's lyricism is more to the point this time, but that turns out to not be a bad thing. The band takes a slightly less mainstream route with this album, but only when compared to their last two records. I think this is a better step forward than Plans.
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BigPapaMay 19, 2008I wish people would stop calling Death Cab emo. They're so much better then any whiney emo band. I give it a 9 because its not quite as good as the Photo Album or Transatlanticism. And Chad S, "Such Great Heights" is a Postal Service song. It may be the same singer, but its not the same band.
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DanielR.May 24, 2008This album is an acquired taste. On my fifth listen-through I finally realized ho amazing it truly is. Beautiful musically, and a poignant meditation on loneliness.
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SpencerP.May 13, 2008This album is awe-inspiring. Easily one of Death Cab's best records, and that's saying a lot. Very moving, very raw. Stronger than the typical Death Cab sound, which makes it that much better!
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JosephP.May 13, 2008A fantastic record from start to finish, it's Death Cab's best outting by far, and something distinct and interesting. Early contention for album of the year, IMO.
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JordanF.May 13, 2008
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Weirdfish7May 16, 2008Best Emo Band on the planet, and I know the word emo is insulting to a lot of fans, but these guys can play......and Gibbard knows how to write a song....8.5 actually.....I Will Possess Your Heart is their best song to date.
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ColinB.May 27, 2008
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TomH.May 29, 2008Unexpected excellent album.
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Oct 20, 2010A really good album. It's not s good as trans but its damn good. Cath is my favorite death cab song it's so catchy. A well done album, no songs are bad, some are better than others, but it is a really great album.
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Oct 8, 2011Revolutionary, it certainly is not. There's just so much to like here. The band is totally in their element at this point, and on easy-breezy tracks like "Bixby Canyon Bridge", "Cath...", and "I Will Possess Your Heart", it's visible in spades. Not a great album, but a really fun one.
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Dec 15, 2012This album is good with a mix of variety in the songs on it. Overall I'd say that it is very worth buying and worth the listen whether you're a big Death Cab fan or not.
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Jan 21, 2018
Awards & Rankings
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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.
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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.
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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.