Death Cab For Cutie Will Possess Some Shelf Space

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Under consideration today is the new full-length by Death Cab For Cutie, Narrow Stairs, which hits stores tomorrow:

• “An angelic choir of voices and celestial organ frame the penetrating images of ‘Grapevine Fires,’ where a man, his lover, and her child drive to a cemetery to picnic with prime views of a wildfire. ‘A wake-up call to a rented room sounded like an alarm of impending doom/ To warn us it’s only a matter of time/ Before we all burn,’ Gibbard sings. That sentiment echoes throughout the album, but don’t let it get you down. The end is near, but the little girl in the song dances on graves while the flames spread, and so, in his way, does Gibbard.” [Boston Globe] • “The songwriter has spoken about the influence that Jack Kerouac’s end-of-the-road narrative Big Sur had on Narrow Stairs, especially on the opening track, ‘Bixby Canyon Bridge,’ a tribute to a Big Sur landmark. That song’s narrator makes a pilgrimage to the sacred spot but finds himself ‘no closer to any sort of truth’ than when he began. Still, by the end of this haunting record, Gibbard has gained a deep understanding of lovelessness and the way people live in its quiet wreckage.” [Rolling Stone] • “The disc is nicely balanced between driving rock–the poppy ‘No Sunlight,’ anthemic ‘Cath,’ and joyous retro vibe of ‘Long Division’ and ‘Pity and Fear’–and moody mid-tempo ballads–a poetic ‘Grapevine Fires’ and the self-deprecating oddity of ‘You Can Do Better Than Me.’ Narrow Stairs is a knockout, and will make you throw out everything you’ve come to know about Death Cab For Cutie.” [AP] • “Narrow Stairs is a great album, one that could make them very famous, but could very well also kill their careers. And you get the feeling they know that, but they don’t really care. After all, there’s no other way to really explain an album like this. They put it all on the line, which is something that I wish more bands would do these days. Whether they crash and burn is sort of up to you now, isn’t it? No pressure or anything.” [MTV]