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Holistic Guidance - Narrow Stairs
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List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $9.99
Your Save: $ 8.99 ( 47% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Atlantic
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075678994654
Label: Atlantic
Manufacturer: Atlantic
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Atlantic
Release Date: 2008-05-13
Studio: Atlantic
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Editorial Reviews:
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Narrow Stairs might be the first album recorded by Death Cab for Cutie since Ben Gibbard's former solo project went unexpectedly stratospheric, but Gibbard hasn't let it go to his head. Oh, OK, maybe a little: lead-off single "I Will Possess Your Heart" is an eight minute jam that speeds off on one long, luminous curve before Gibbard's distinctive vocals swing in, sweet and plaintive as ever. Even when indulging their grander visions, though, Death Cab for Cutie are still familiar as the same band that wrote those fragile, winsome songs back before teen drama The OC came knocking. Never knowingly overstated, built from driving rhythms, flourishes of piano and intricate melodies, Narrow Stairs builds grand, emotionally loaded narratives from small, subtle parts. "Your New Twin Sized Bed" hides a deftly articulated tale of heartbreak and loneliness amidst soothing tangles of guitar, while "You Can Do Better than Me" is a sweet miniature that's part Pet Sounds orchestration, part wistful Dear John. This isn't, as Gibbard would previously hint, a dissonant or especially adventurous album. It proves, however, that Death Cab can extend their scope without diluting the pathos or energy of their music, and it not only sounds great, but bodes well for the future. --Louis Pattison
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Monotonous and bland, yet surprisingly boring
Comment: This is the complete opposite of the Death Cab I know and love. What happened to melody? What happened to diversity? Each song seems blandly the same, monotonous, and (gasp!) downright BORRRINGGGG!
I saw them live in L.A. a while back, and their energy and effort blew me away. I even chatted with Ben backstage, and his charisma and joy was impressive. Too bad they didn't translate that into this album....
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rocky but good.
Comment: This record is definitely a departure from their previous works. Rockier and with more jam sessions but still very good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Marionettes for the Music Box
Comment: Trash.
Unremarkable, forgettable garbage.
Never has going through the motions been so adeptly portrayed in song.
There is not a single worthwhile composition, suggesting that, like many who get doused with popularity, the band doesn't have the artistic wherewithal to keep a record label from dictating every melodic sweep and gesture with the twitch of a wrist.
I tried valiantly to stick with Death Cab through the stilted, meta-production of Plans and the meadering dissonance of Transatlanticism.
But it is now official that the band has been permanently led astray from the mystical, albeit morose, ingenuity that engendered "Something About Airplanes."
Though it saddens me, I cannot follow Gibbard into the dark.
If anyone has an address for the band, let me know. I'd like to return my copy to sender.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Only what I expected from Death Cab
Comment: This CD is pretty typical of Death Cab. It's not really anything out of the ordinary, but every song is great. It's one of those CDs you just keep in the car and listen to forever and always find a song that was a hidden favorite.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Can serve as a cure for insomnia
Comment: I'll start by explaining that I'm not a huge fan of Death Cab for Cutie and that this was the first CD I've purchased from them. So take that into account when you read this. Judging by the fairly positive response this CD's gotten here so far I'll assume this CD's par for the course for this band, but I found it incredibly boring. One low to mid-tempo track follows another for the entire CD...they all sound the same, they all lack any sort of hook, and all lack any excitement whatsoever. It's the type of CD where after listening for a while you'll forget you even had it on.
Soul Meets Body was easily one of the best songs I'd ever heard, and yet still I didn't buy Plans, the CD that was on. Determined not to make that mistake again, I checked out this CD, Narrow Stairs, after LIKING (but not loving) the single I Will Possess Your Heart (the long intro's really the only thing that makes the song stand out)...unfortunately, even that "good" song isn't matched by anything else on this CD.
The only tolerable songs on it were, of course, the 1st single I Will Possess Your Heart (what a surprise that it's much faster and more melodic than...anything else on the CD) Bixby Canyon Bridge (incredibly annoying outro aside,) and Your New Twin Sized Bed. That's it. After several listens those are the only songs that stood out in any way for me, those are the only ones that seem to do anything but drone on and on.
Obviously if you're a fan of this band you should know what to expect. New listeners who haven't owned one of Death Cab's CD's before should be warned, however. Personally, I'm getting tired of bands creating very misleading 1st singles that sound nothing like the rest of the CD...it's CD's like Narrow Stairs that explain why so many people today illegally download music.
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