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So Death Cab For Cutie has a new album coming out soon, titled Narrow Stairs.  And already the marketing push is going full force.  MTV stopped by the studio for a listen and you’ve got to wonder if the writer was paid off by the band.  I’m not necessary questioning James Montgomery’s integrity as a music writer, however, he gets a bit gushy (and only after qualifying for us that he never much cared for the band to begin with…)

In short, it’s the album on which Death Cab make the leap, graduating from one of indie’s premiere acts to one of the best bands in the country, a formidable and fearless outfit existing at the exact intersection of critical acclaim and commercial success. This kind of thing only happens when bands stop trying to be all things to all people, shut themselves off from the outside world, and simply play. If they’re good enough — and clearly, Death Cab are — then greatness follows. It’s what happened to Radiohead on OK Computer, or Beck on Odelay or even the White Stripes on Elephant. And now you can add Death Cab for Cutie to the conversation, and whether Narrow Stairs has the same cultural impact as any of those other albums remains to be seen — I’m not even sure any of their fans are gonna buy it — but suffice it to say, it deserves to be heard by as many people as possible.

Narrow Stairs is a great album, one that could make them very famous, but could very well also kill their careers. And you get the feeling they know that, but they don’t really care. After all, there’s no other way to really explain an album like this. They put it all on the line, which is something that I wish more bands would do these days. Whether they crash and burn is sort of up to you now, isn’t it?

We’ll just wait to the album is released.  But that early look at the making of the record was pretty dope, though not sure if you could compare it to Ok Computer, Odelay or even Elephant.  Just saying.

Here’s Ben Gibbard playing “The Ice is Getting Thinner” at Somerville Theater 5/7/07.  This will be one of the tracks on the new album.