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www.TheJRE.com Presents
Reporting by Keyan Reid
Give me a fuckin’ break. The song in question – “I Will Possess Your Heart” – meanders around with a weak bass-line and a splash of piano for a good four and a half minutes before spilling into its weird, stalker-esque vocals. So, long story short, the (media-chosen) defining song on this album is mostly aimless filler, followed up by some creepy stuff from a guy obsessing about a girl (I’m assuming) while he more or less sits in the bushes outside her house. Whatever. This song could’ve been wrapped up in two and a half minutes, and it would have been far better off for it. As it is, the singer here just seems mental. If he didn’t sound so completely apathetic in his singing, I’d worry he’s setting up to rape someone, but I just don’t see him having the energy. But, you know, it’s not all that bad on this album. I think I just needed to put that one track – the focus of so many articles about the album – into proper context. Once you get past “I Will Possess Your Heart”, there are some good things to be had, starting immediately with “No Sunlight”. That one is backed by “Cath….”, another good track. The album loses pace with “Talking Bird”, but regains a little momentum with “You Can Do Better Than Me”, a song that lightly reminds me of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album with its sparing-but-pronounced percussion mixed in with piano and organ. This song ties directly into “Grapevine Fires”, which is okay, and then the album moves towards “Your New Twin Sized Bed”. It’s at that point that my problems with the album, and moreover Death Cab For Cutie, really begin to substantiate. On “Your New Twin Sized Bed”, you have a fun melody and some pretty cool sounds coming from the band, but overlaying all of that are the energy-free vocals of Ben Gibbard. Everything the guy sings is just sterile and bereft of any auditory emotion. The lyrics themselves are quite often all right, and the guy does have a fundamentally respectable voice, but the application of it just has no passion whatsoever. Maybe that’s actually the appeal to some people, but for me, it’s far too cold and removed. “The Ice Is Getting Thinner” really exacerbates this aspect at the end of the album, providing only a few slow guitar notes while Gibbard’s voice is put on full display in all its emotionally devoid glory. This is a track I can definitely skip. [Modus' Note: I don't know, I kind of dig Death Cab. "Crooked Teeth"? "Soul Meets Body"? No..? "Plans" album? Saw them at Coachella years ago - thought they were good.] Keyan Reid Rating:
Points of Interest
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The one blurb you see consistently about the newest album from Death
Cab For Cutie – Narrow Stairs – is that it features an 8
minute song. This is supposed to be some great indication of how experimental
and advanced the band has gotten as they grow up.