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Album review: Death Cab for Cutie

By Glenn Gamboa Newsday

Death Cab for Cutie

Narrow Stairs

Death Cab for Cutie's new album, Narrow Stairs, starts out promisingly, with the dramatic Bixby Canyon Bridge, awash in Chris Walla's crashing guitars and Jason McGerr's bashing drums, and the sprawling eight-minute-plus epic single, I Will Possess Your Heart, which begins with more than four minutes of Nick Harmer's throbbing basslines and expansive guitar work.

It really does take all of that rocking to balance singer Ben Gibbard's still-pretty but increasingly downhearted songs about desperate people falling out of love. His high-register voice still can melt hearts, as he does on the poignant, Phil Spector-influenced You Can Do Better Than Me, which serves as a nice change of pace musically, even if lyrically it drags the narrator's esteem issues even lower. Narrow Stairs is built to sound narrower and more depressing as it progresses, like a soundtrack for a shut-in withdrawing further from the outside world. To maximize the effect, the band starts leaving out little things like tempo changes and, well, different notes for Gibbard to sing.

Does that make for a successful artistic journey? Sure. But it also makes for a trip you'll want to avoid after a while.