Goshdarnit, not again!: DCFC makes yet another great album
2 Comments Published by Kate on Monday at 6/09/2008 01:22:00 PM.
Death Cab For Cutie - Long Division"His head was a cityPlans was a gentle abstraction, an album to languish in when the sky was overcast, the future was uncertain, and the past was unbearable. Things have changed. Narrow Stairs is an album posed on the verge of a breakthrough, with a world suddenly ostensible. When I heard the album, I knew I liked it immediately.
Of paper buildings
And the echoes that remained"
The lyrics of Narrow Stairs no long rest on theoretical assumptions (“If I could open my arms / and span the length of the isle of Manhattan…”), uncertain predictions (“in the morning I fled / left a note and it read, / “someday you will be loved.”), and future plans (“if there’s no one beside you / when your soul departs / then I’ll follow you into the dark”) but on the concrete past and present, not to mention promises made and broken.
The album takes some interesting risks, the greatest of which is “I Will Possess Your Heart,” with its 4 and a ½ minute introduction. The arrangements are less groundbreaking as well, but the lyrics are closer to the surface, less impenetrable. The tradeoff is use of 3rd person narration, as in “Long Division” and “Cath.”
None of this is to say that Narrow Stairs is a happy album: in “Long Division” a man promises not to be a remainder (not that is works out); in “No Sunlight” and “The Ice Is Getting Thinner” the world is changing for the worse.
Buy Narrow Stairs from Amazon.com (or DCFC merch from the band)
Death Cab For Cutie's Website/Myspace
Death Cab For Cutie - Love Song (The Cure cover)
Chris Walla - Sing Again
Bonzo Dog Band - Death Cab For Cutie
Labels: Death Cab For Cutie, review
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I love you for posting the love song cover.
Nice blog, thanks for posting