Narrow Stairs is the sixth studio album by rock band Death Cab for Cutie. It was released on May 12, 2008 in the United Kingdom and released on May 13, 2008 in the United States. The first single of the album was I Will Possess Your Heart, released on March 18, 2008. The second single will be Cath....
Production
In October 2007, Chris Walla, producer and guitarist, said that Death Cab for Cutie's new album "is in full swing; we're six songs in. Read Full BioNarrow Stairs is the sixth studio album by rock band Death Cab for Cutie. It was released on May 12, 2008 in the United Kingdom and released on May 13, 2008 in the United States. The first single of the album was I Will Possess Your Heart, released on March 18, 2008. The second single will be Cath....
Production
In October 2007, Chris Walla, producer and guitarist, said that Death Cab for Cutie's new album "is in full swing; we're six songs in." He went on to say "thus far it's pretty weird and pretty spectacular; lots of blood. It's creepy and heavy... we've got a ten minute long Can jam, and had you suggested that possibility to me in 1998, I'd have eaten your puppy's brain with a spoon." In a Billboard piece, Walla promised a "curve ball" and described the album: "It's really weird. It's really, really good, I think, but it's totally a curve ball, and I think it's gonna be a really polarizing record. But I'm really excited about it. It's really got some teeth. The landscape of the thing is way, way more lunar than the urban meadow sort of thing that has been happening for the last couple of records." Walla went on to say, "[It's also] louder and more dissonant and ... I think abrasive would be a good word to use. [We were influenced by] heavy, sludgy, slow metal [and] synth-punk band Brainiac." Ben Gibbard, lead singer and writer, commented, "I just don't feel like we really have anything to prove of it other than to ourselves and to making a record we really enjoy."
The lead single, "I Will Possess Your Heart" was released on March 18, 2008, and the band released the single on their MySpace page shortly thereafter. The song began radio play on March 24, 2008.
Apple's iTunes music store opened pre-orders for the album on March 19, 2008.
On March 31, a fake version of the album was "leaked" on a music blog and spread to various torrent sites as an April Fool's prank with only "I Will Possess Your Heart" correct of all the Narrow Stairs songs named. The rest of the songs were by German indie band Velveteen, but due to the two bands having a very similar sound, some fans weren't sure at first if the files were in fact fake.
On May 6, 2008 the album was released on iTunes a week early, but was set back to pre-order status the next day.
Notes
Several of the songs have literary or cultural themes. Grapevine Fires appears to be centered around the wildfires that raged in California during the summer and fall of 2007. Bixby Canyon Bridge is rife with references to Jack Kerouac's writing; Gibbard often notes that Kerouac is a favorite author in interviews, and Bixby was written during the artist's recent trip to Big Sur. Gibbard has written lyrics about Kerouac before - notably, his contribution of lyrics and vocals to a song by Styrofoam titled Couches in Alleys. In Death Cab for Cutie's 2000 album, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes notably, there is a song titled Lowell, MA. Lowell, Massachusetts is where Kerouac was born. Furthermore the album's Title Track makes a reference to Kerouac's poem "October in the Railroad Earth." Many fans have noted that Gibbard's lyrics on Narrow Stairs are largely more straightforward and easier to interpret than on past records. The 10th song Pity And Fear ends abruptly. In an interview the band stated that the ending was supposed to sound a bit like the recording but actually the tape machine they were using broke toward the ending. The cover art was created by designer EE Storey.
Critical reception
The album has received mostly positive reviews. MTV's James Montgomery referred to Narrow Stairs as "unquestionably the best thing [Death Cab has] ever done". In another positive review, Rolling Stone called the album "a dark, strangely compelling record that trades the group's bright melancholy for something nearer to despair."
The album has so far been highly rated by critics and fans, having been awarded 4 stars out of 5 by publications such as Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Spin, Alternative Press, The Times, The Independent and The Guardian, as well as by the website All Music Guide.
Time Magazine and Consequence of Sound both awarded the album a "B+" rating, with the AV Club giving an "A" rating, while positive reviews have also been given by Mojo, People, Pitchfork Media, The Album Project, Patrol, AbsolutePunk and PopMatters, among several others. It has a rating of 74 on music review aggregator Metacritic.
In its debut week, Narrow Stairs reached the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 144,000 copies and scoring the band its first #1 album. One week later it fell to #5 with 52,000 copies. It has so far sold 374,068 copies in the US.
The final track on the album, The Ice Is Getting Thinner, is used in the final episode of the hit TV series Gossip Girl during an emotional scene between two of the lead characters, Serena van der Woodsen and Dan Humphrey.
Production
In October 2007, Chris Walla, producer and guitarist, said that Death Cab for Cutie's new album "is in full swing; we're six songs in. Read Full BioNarrow Stairs is the sixth studio album by rock band Death Cab for Cutie. It was released on May 12, 2008 in the United Kingdom and released on May 13, 2008 in the United States. The first single of the album was I Will Possess Your Heart, released on March 18, 2008. The second single will be Cath....
Production
In October 2007, Chris Walla, producer and guitarist, said that Death Cab for Cutie's new album "is in full swing; we're six songs in." He went on to say "thus far it's pretty weird and pretty spectacular; lots of blood. It's creepy and heavy... we've got a ten minute long Can jam, and had you suggested that possibility to me in 1998, I'd have eaten your puppy's brain with a spoon." In a Billboard piece, Walla promised a "curve ball" and described the album: "It's really weird. It's really, really good, I think, but it's totally a curve ball, and I think it's gonna be a really polarizing record. But I'm really excited about it. It's really got some teeth. The landscape of the thing is way, way more lunar than the urban meadow sort of thing that has been happening for the last couple of records." Walla went on to say, "[It's also] louder and more dissonant and ... I think abrasive would be a good word to use. [We were influenced by] heavy, sludgy, slow metal [and] synth-punk band Brainiac." Ben Gibbard, lead singer and writer, commented, "I just don't feel like we really have anything to prove of it other than to ourselves and to making a record we really enjoy."
The lead single, "I Will Possess Your Heart" was released on March 18, 2008, and the band released the single on their MySpace page shortly thereafter. The song began radio play on March 24, 2008.
Apple's iTunes music store opened pre-orders for the album on March 19, 2008.
On March 31, a fake version of the album was "leaked" on a music blog and spread to various torrent sites as an April Fool's prank with only "I Will Possess Your Heart" correct of all the Narrow Stairs songs named. The rest of the songs were by German indie band Velveteen, but due to the two bands having a very similar sound, some fans weren't sure at first if the files were in fact fake.
On May 6, 2008 the album was released on iTunes a week early, but was set back to pre-order status the next day.
Notes
Several of the songs have literary or cultural themes. Grapevine Fires appears to be centered around the wildfires that raged in California during the summer and fall of 2007. Bixby Canyon Bridge is rife with references to Jack Kerouac's writing; Gibbard often notes that Kerouac is a favorite author in interviews, and Bixby was written during the artist's recent trip to Big Sur. Gibbard has written lyrics about Kerouac before - notably, his contribution of lyrics and vocals to a song by Styrofoam titled Couches in Alleys. In Death Cab for Cutie's 2000 album, We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes notably, there is a song titled Lowell, MA. Lowell, Massachusetts is where Kerouac was born. Furthermore the album's Title Track makes a reference to Kerouac's poem "October in the Railroad Earth." Many fans have noted that Gibbard's lyrics on Narrow Stairs are largely more straightforward and easier to interpret than on past records. The 10th song Pity And Fear ends abruptly. In an interview the band stated that the ending was supposed to sound a bit like the recording but actually the tape machine they were using broke toward the ending. The cover art was created by designer EE Storey.
Critical reception
The album has received mostly positive reviews. MTV's James Montgomery referred to Narrow Stairs as "unquestionably the best thing [Death Cab has] ever done". In another positive review, Rolling Stone called the album "a dark, strangely compelling record that trades the group's bright melancholy for something nearer to despair."
The album has so far been highly rated by critics and fans, having been awarded 4 stars out of 5 by publications such as Rolling Stone, Kerrang!, Spin, Alternative Press, The Times, The Independent and The Guardian, as well as by the website All Music Guide.
Time Magazine and Consequence of Sound both awarded the album a "B+" rating, with the AV Club giving an "A" rating, while positive reviews have also been given by Mojo, People, Pitchfork Media, The Album Project, Patrol, AbsolutePunk and PopMatters, among several others. It has a rating of 74 on music review aggregator Metacritic.
In its debut week, Narrow Stairs reached the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 144,000 copies and scoring the band its first #1 album. One week later it fell to #5 with 52,000 copies. It has so far sold 374,068 copies in the US.
The final track on the album, The Ice Is Getting Thinner, is used in the final episode of the hit TV series Gossip Girl during an emotional scene between two of the lead characters, Serena van der Woodsen and Dan Humphrey.
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
Bixby Canyon Bridge
Death Cab for Cutie Lyrics
I descended a dusty gravel ridge
Beneath the Bixby Canyon Bridge
Until I eventually arrived
At the place where your soul had died
Barefoot in the shallow creek,
I grabbed some stones from underneath
And waited for you to speak to me
And the silence; it became so very clear
That you had long ago disappeared
I cursed myself for being surprised
That this didn't play like it did in my mind
All the way from San Francisco
As I chased the end of your road
Cause I've still got miles to go
And I want to know my fate
If I keep up this way
And it's hard to want to stay awake
When everyone you need, they all seem to be asleep
And you wonder if you missed your dream
You can't see a dream
You can't see a dream
You just can't see a dream
And then it started getting dark
I truged back to where the car was parked
No closer to any kind of truth
Lyrics ยฉ BMG Rights Management
Written by: BENJAMIN GIBBARD
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
To comment on specific lyrics, highlight them
2019 Toyota Aygo
So happy my dad introduced me to death cab.
Angelo Medau
One of my favorite songs by them! Brings me back to grade 7.
Caden Pope
One night while alone in my car I put this album on. I skipped straight to song 7 and listened all the way through. While I knew some songs connected I did not realize this whole album is a loop. This song, being the first on the album, functions just as well as the last. It concludes our human fears and preconditions about connecting to one another. When he says โI want to know my fateโ the rest of the album becomes a sequel. Listen to this song last and that line becomes the origin of the prequel which will become this album
Ashley Miller
They do that with so many of their albums. Everything is just so well connected, in sound and lyric. Death Cab really creates art.
Kevin Mcnamara
Many year later I miss my best mate oss... I hope you hear this brother. I followed you to that tree and I beat it with a pipe till it knew who it took from my life. 10 years plus and it still pains me.
Blaze Leibo
Sorry for your loss brother. Grief is weird, isn't it? They say it gets easier as time goes on, but for me, it only gets harder knowing I'm getting further and further away from the last time I seen/spoke to that person. Much love.
Retired Gold Farmer ESO
when everyone you meet all seem to be asleep......
mywhychromosome
I want to know my fate
If I keep up this way
rhian
This has to be my favorite Death Cab Song.
Shari Berry
I feel very sad right now and this song resonates right now.