Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard must have taken it especially hard when he turned thirty in 2006. Holing himself up in a cabin in Big Sur where Jack Kerouac wrote one of his most famous narratives, Gibbard wrote the lyrics to Narrow Stairs Death Cab’s second major label album. Where 2005’s Plans explored the afterlife, the new album is much less optimistic and dwells on people who have lost their faith in love yet remain in their relationships for lack of anything better to do.

Songs about doomed love lives dominate like the bride in “Cath…” who “closed the door on so many men who would have loved you more” and “Talking Bird” whose cage is always open and is “free to leave or stay but sometimes gets confused.” The eight minute long stalker anthem “I Will Possees Your Heart” pleads with its subject “you got to take some time with me” and the philanderer in “Pity and Fear” points out “when you can’t stand in place you can’t tell who’s walking away from who remains.”  Other titles that speak for themselves are “You Can Do Better Than Me” (“and I can’t do better than you”), “The Ice is Getting Thinner” and “Your New Twin Sized Bed.”
  
The juxtaposition between the lyrical themes and the bright, shimmering instrumental arrangements has been a Death Cab For Cutie trademark since they began recording in 1999. Ben Gibbard’s clear tenor is one of the most distinctive in music today and when he sings those heartbreaking lines it is highly compelling. Losing your innocence while turning thirty and is a rite of passage and Death Cab For Cutie navigate those Narrow Stairs with grace and artistry.

 

Listen for songs from the album Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie all this week on Paul Shugrue’s new music show “Out of the Box” on Hampton Roads public radio 89.5 WHRV Mon. through Thurs. from 7 to 9 p.m., Sat. afternoon from 1 to 5 p.m. and on-demand at www.whrv.org/outofthebox.