Death Cab For Cutie have announced four UK tour dates for November around the UK, including their biggest headlining show to date.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (15th August) at 9am.

Friday 14th November - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
Saturday 15th November - Nottingham Rock City
Sunday 16th November - Bristol Colston Hall
Monday 17th November - Sheffield Academy
Wednesday 19th November - London Alexandra Palace

It’s always tricky when a band starts to grow up. Some bands away and come back weaker, weedier, lacking versions of their former selves (Weezer, Placebo, Travis etc) and others come back stronger than ever (Green Day’s American Idiot? The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi?). However, Death Cab for Cutie has balanced the thin line between the two with their latest offering, Narrow Stairs. Neither weedier, nor stronger than their predecessors, it’s simply, well, bland. Not lacking anything in particular, it’s good, but fails to have any of the grab-you-by-the-ears stuff that Transatlanticism or Plans had.

With many of the band now into their 30’s, “Narrow Stairs” treads a narrow pathway to well-constructed popularity: nothing on the collection will offend old listeners, and it will probably appeal to new listeners too, but nothing that will have the effect of “Soul Meets Body” or “The Sound of Settling”, and the mass OC-style appeal they have earn. Their sixth album, we get a feeling that Chris Walla and Ben Gibbard and their friends have carefully constructed the collection to “tick” the A&R boxes: 8 minute experimental “rock out”? Check –‘I will possess your heart’. Happy, summery upbeat song? Check – ‘No Sunlight’. Rousing, motivation building song? Check – ‘You Can Do Better than Me’. Sensitive end-of the-relationship song? Check – The Ice Is Getting Thinner.

Relying throughout on their well-refined “safe” sound, Death Cab rely on Chris’ jangly guitars and Nick’s driving bass lines to get them through the album, with none of the tracks sounding particularly “out there” like they did on some of the suburban angsty anthems of earlier albums “We Have The Anthems And We’re Voting Yes” and “You Can Play These Songs With Chords”. Both of these featured an innovative mixture of moany angst and, well, just plain strange tracks (remember “Flustered / Hey Tomcat!”’s cut up hip-hop beats?). We understand that bands have to grow up and move on, but Narrow Stairs just looks too much like a “safe” bet that wouldn’t alienate, will sell well, and keep the A&R people happy at Atlantic’s money counting department.

Many of the tracks sound like they could provide the soundtrack to many a moderately successful indie flick – you can imagine many of the tracks sound tracking this year’s new Juno or Garden State. It’s the inoffensive stuff you could put on a car stereo with a group of friends with wildly differing senses of humour – nobody will complain, but likewise nobody will go “wow, who is THIS band?”.

One saving grace for the collection is Ben Gibbard’s lyrics. Whilst his story-telling skills will never reach the level of the Morrisseys of this world, he sure knows how to tell a tale, be it regrouping at the start of the album, dealing with rejection in the middle and the final blow to the relationship at the end of the album. Lyrics such as “The Ice Is Getting Thinner’s” “We bury our love in the windsory grave / Along came the snow, was all that remained” hawks back to the Gibbard of old, obvious yet familiar and friendly.

Don’t get me wrong though – Death Cab can sure make an album that would put many of their pretenders to the thrown quiver in their boots (yes, The Fray, I’m looking at you). Just we’ve grown accustomed to more aurally pleasing albums from them, more challenging works. It just would have been nice if they’d had the balls to take a few risks that got them to where they are now, and took the plunge that would alienate some, but draw more new fans in.

Death Cab For Cutie have announced a trio of dates around the UK for the summer, almost exactly two years since their last trip over the Atlantic.

Tickets are on sale now for all dates, but expect them to go quickly as they sold out Brixton Academy last trip over here. Prices are £16 for Birmingham and Manchester, £17.50 for London.

Tuesday 15th July - Birmingham Academy
Wednesday 16th July - Manchester Apollo
Thursday 17th July - London Brixton Academy

Wednesday evening saw the return to the UK of Death Cab For Cutie, the American Indie superstar rockers who have struck a chord with millions of teenagers worldwide. They played at Brixton Academy in London to 5,000 adoring fans who queued from early in the day in blazing heat to catch their show.

Support came in the capable hands of Viva Voce, the Portland based husband and wife duo who managed to warm the crowd up suitably, though their screeching guitars did grate a bit after a while. Kevin on the drums was simply sublime: managing to hold the whole thing together whilst wife Anita Robinson’s vocals left a lot to be desired.

9pm rapidly rolled round, and Death Cab came on, playing “Passenger Seat” first up, the perfect beginning, chilled and enthralling the whole audience from the start. The heat of the Academy was forgotten, everyone straining to get a view. “Passenger Seat” soon merged into “The New Year”, which sounded perfect. As the set progressed so did the temperatures, but it was certainly worth it. “What Sarah Says” was a definite highlight, though the security guys at the front seemed thoroughly bemused when 5,000 people sang “So who’s going to watch you die?” – I never thought I’d find humour in that song, but it did provide a bit of a highlight.

They then surprised everyone by playing some oldies that some of the younger OC fans hadn’t heard before – namely “President of What?”, “Company Calls” and “Epilogue”, which brought huge smiles to the faces of the older fans, and were some of the highlights of the set.

Throughout the band were quite quiet, preferring to let the music do the talking, though Ben did joke at one point that Wednesday was the last time they’d be playing as Death Cab. This worried everyone, until he joked that they’d be joining Babyshambles “…because you don’t have to turn up all the time”.

Then, to mix things up a bit Death Cab played their usual encore songs “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” and “Transatlanticism” towards the end of the main set, getting many members of the audience worried that they weren’t going to do an encore. “Follow you into the Dark” was a brilliant sing-along, with everyone knowing the words and providing a moment of pure beauty with everyone joining in.

Shortly after the end of “Transatlanticism” the crowd went mad for more, and whilst Death Cab went to change T-Shirts everyone was chanting for more, whilst wondering what the hell they could play if they’d already played their traditional encores. Thus they came back, and burst into an enthusiastic trio of “Marching Bands of Manhattan”, “Expo ‘86″ and a raucous “Sound of Settling”.

Set list: Brixton Academy, 28th June 2006.
Note: Not 100% sure about the order in the middle of the set

Passengers
The new year
Soul Meets Body
Different Names for the same thing
Title and Registration
What Sarah Said
Your Heart is an Empty Room
President of What?
Company Calls
Epilogue
Crooked Teeth
I Will Follow You Into The Dark
We Looked Like Giants
Transatlanticism
———————–
Marching bands of Manhattan
Expo 86
Sound of settling