The success of Death Cab For Cutie’s TRANSATLANTICISM, and Death Cab main man Ben Gibbard’s debut album with the Postal Service, combined to make PLANS one of the most heavily anticipated indie-rock records in many moons. Anyone who thought the band’s move to a major label would rob DCFC’s unique brand of literate, melancholy music of its legendary intensity needn’t have worried–PLANS is one of the group’s most accomplished and emotionally resonant efforts.

Sonically, the disc has a Beatlesque anything-goes attitude and attention to arrangement details. “Summer Skin” is driven by a military-style snare pattern and elliptical bass line but sprinkled with atmospheric sound effects. The throbbing dance-rock beat of “Different Names” is offset by delicate xylophone and percolating synthesizer. The disc’s highlight, however, may be “Someday You Will Be Loved,” which is the kind of simple, irony-free love ballad that stands as a great song with or without production tricks. All the while, Gibbard’s artful, introspective lyrics consistently excite the ear with quirky turns of phrase and descriptive imagery. Both a step forward and a refining of past glories, PLANS is a record filled with quietly powerful moments.

Tracklisting
1. Marching Bands Of Manhattan
2. Soul Meets Body
3. Summer Skin
4. Different Names For The Same Thing
5. I Will Follow You Into The Dark
6. Your Heart Is An Empty Room
7. Someday You Will Be Loved
8. Crooked Teeth
9. What Sarah Said
10. Brothers On A Hotel Bed
11. Stable Song

Professional Reviews
Spin (p.63) – Ranked #14 in Spin’s “40 Best Albums Of 2005″ – “Death Cab’s melodic, mellow guitar rock is earthy enough to ensure there’s no danger of reality floating away.”

Entertainment Weekly (No. 838, p.140) – “…[T]here’s a lot to love here….” – Grade: B plus

Throughout their career, and especially since they were forever enshrined as the favorite band of sardonic emo kid Seth Cohen on television’s THE OC, Death Cab For Cutie have always been known as indie rock’s most famous sensitive guys. Even at their most abrasive on previous albums like PLANS and WE HAVE THE FACTS AND WE’RE VOTING YES, Ben Gibbard and crew have always had an inherent gentleness along with the low-key pop sensibility that allowed them to make the jump from the indie fringe to major-label stardom. The ambitious, experimental NARROW STAIRS is Death Cab For Cutie’s unexpectedly edgy response to any preconceptions, a wide-ranging, noisy and exciting album that sounds little like anything they’ve done before. From the epic-length first single. “I Will Possess Your Heart.” through the spacy, almost psychedelic “Pity and Fear” and the noise-riddled “Your New Twin Sized Bed,” NARROW STAIRS is Death Cab For Cutie’s equivalent to Radiohead’s KID A, a bracingly ambitious attempt to counter expectations as their stardom ascends.

Tracklisting
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. I Will Possess Your Heart
3. No Sunlight
4. Cath…
5. Talking Bird
6. You Can Do Better Than Me
7. Grapevine Fires
8. Your New Twin Sized Bed
9. Long Division
10. Pity And Fear
11. The Ice Is Getting Thinner

Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (p.66) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[T]he album is as dark as anything the band has done….[T]he most indelible moment is ‘Grapevine Fires,’ a minor-key processional framed by churchy organ and electric piano.”

Spin (p.48) – Ranked #25 in Spin’s “40 Best Albums Of 2008″ — “Every album gets slightly more refined, with Ben Gibbard and Co. stretching their sound…”

Entertainment Weekly (p.121) – “Death Cab’s ebullience makes this a redemptive work about sadness. And there’s nothing NARROW-minded about that.” — Grade: B

Alternative Press (p.125) – 4 stars out of 5 — “[T]hey still contribute stand-alone pop gems….Their sound is timeless. ‘Your New Twin Sized Bed’ is especially a stand-out, with a midtempo, acoustic-driven melody…”

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.47) – “Spacious, ambitious and bolder than ever, DCFC have struck gold once more. Magic.”

Q (Magazine) (p.138) – 3 stars out of 5 — “[T]hey’ve shaken things up, most headspinningly with the eight-minute slab of instrumental loveliness ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’…”