…the almost right word

death cab for cutie’s most recent album is a wonderful surprise. personally, i have only connected with a few of their past tracks. narrow stairs, however, is full of artistic talent and “lot’s of blood,” as ben gibbard (vocalist, guitarist and mastermind of our friends, the postal service) stated. in fact, this album (their sixth) is their first to reach the number one spot on the billboard charts. rolling stone:

Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard is the poet of a particular purgatory — the holding cell in your head that’s filled with failed relationships and wrong roads taken. Death Cab’s most memorable songs contain snapshots from its walls: Gibbard has sung about an incriminating kiss in a photo booth, discovering forgotten pictures of an ex in his glove compartment, and an especially bleak Kodak moment from a doomed marriage. On “Cath . . . ,” from the band’s new Narrow Stairs, he finds a girl “in a hand-me-down wedding dress,” and the details feel like knife twists: “As the flashbulbs burst, she holds a smile/Like someone would hold a crying child.” That sort of heartbreak defines Narrow Stairs. But where Death Cab’s past records made it easy to empathize with Gibbard’s narrators, the group’s second major-label release zeros in on characters who are often more creepy than cuddly. The result is a dark, strangely compelling record that trades the group’s bright melancholy for something nearer to despair.

thus far, “cath…” is my favorite track and “grapevine fires” is a close second. but hey, i also swooned over the song about “an incriminating kiss in a photo booth” as well as the one about “discovering forgotten pictures of an ex in his glove compartment.” while postal service may be gone for good, it looks like death cab will keep me satiated.