‘narrow stairs’

‘narrow stairs’

Death Cab For Cutie (Atlantic)

Grade: A+

Making the jump from an indie label to a major one can spell disaster, and many a fan heralded the demise of Death Cab For Cutie after their unfairly criticized Atlantic debut, 2005’s “Plans.”

Again boasting slick production and a new direction for their sound, Death Cab’s follow-up, “Narrow Stairs,” will shatter any expectations about this band — and here it’s a compliment.

Typically grounded in warm and bright flavors, Death Cab have widened their scope dramatically on “Narrow Stairs,” with synth providing dark tones and biting atmosphere — the disc floats and echoes.

Death Cab still cover the same heartfelt territory — love and happiness, rejection and regret — just with a lot more aplomb.

Disc opener “Bixby Canyon Bridge” provides a jolt, with a soft intro and frontman Ben Gibbard’s emotive vocals lulling you in before a hard riff hits you over the head.

Impressive lead single “I Will Possess Your Heart” boasts an ambitious intro — maybe too much so — propelled by bass and piano before Gibbard flashes his typical eloquence: “How I wish you could see the potential/The potential of you and me/It’s like a book elegantly bound/But in a language you can’t read just yet.”

—John Kosik, Associated Press

‘3 doors down’

3 Doors Down (Universal)

Grade: C+

3 Doors Down doesn’t break any new ground with its latest offering, and why should it? The band’s last offering, 2005’s “Seventeen Days,” smashed the Platinum barrier. So what we’ve got again is a ballad-heavy collection, that starts with a couple of rockers in “Train” and “Citizen Soldier” (with its patriotic “support the troops” message). “It’s Not My Time,” already a radio hit, comes next. And then the record loses steam, beginning with “Let Me Be Myself,” a very nice slow dance that — lyrically — rings the bell on the wimp-o-meter. The band is at its best with its darker material, like “She Don’t Want the World” and “Runaway” instead of the down-tempo tunes that give the album its by-the-book feel.

—Guy D’Astolfo, The Vindicator

‘On My Way Here’

Clay Aiken (RCA)

Grade: C

Not much has changed with this bathetic balladeer’s fourth release. (For those of you without a TV set, Aiken was the popular runner-up on the second season of “American Idol.”) He’s wielding his lithe tenor with more emotionality, but he’s still hopelessly addicted to would-be inspirational anthems.

Aiken does his best job vocally on the bluesy “Everything I Don’t Need.” His worst vocal? Easy. His weak Johnny Mathis imitation on “Something About Us.”

Most of the selections here are expertly crafted tunes. But perhaps because Aiken had no hand in writing them, they tend to sound off-the-rack rather than custom tailored, even the nostalgic title track, co-written by One Republic’s Ryan Tedder, which has a country flavor. In the end, nothing jumps out of this maudlin pack.

—David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer

‘Rockferry’

Duffy (Mercury)

Grade: B+

Duffy’s debut album could slip in between Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield on a collector’s shelf, but the 23-year-old pop-soul ingenue says she developed her sound without hearing either artist.

Still, the singer-songwriter, who grew up in a remote Welsh village where top-40 music ruled, embodies the style and substance of a classic ’60s soul diva.

She co-wrote each of the ten tracks on “Rockferry,” an album all about old-fashioned heartbreak. On the title track, Duffy has “a bag of songs and a heavy heart.” She tells a lover they’re finished in the sparsely arranged “Warwick Avenue,” bemoans his lack of attention in “Hanging On Too Long” and tries to keep herself from the arms of a cheater in “Stepping Stone.”

She knows she’s a fool in love and pleads for compassion on the super-catchy single, “Mercy.” Duffy taps into her inner Aretha Franklin on the electro-tinged tune, begging for mercy over a bouncy chorus of yeah, yeah, yeahs.

While none of the album’s other songs are as punchy or uptempo and this toe-tapping track, Duffy delivers a solid, soulful debut with the same retro appeal and promise Amy Winehouse generated with 2006’s “Back to Black.”

—Sandy Cohen, Associated Press

‘Poison the Hit Parade’

Ike Reilly (Rock Ridge)

Grade: A-

“Who says you can’t take a shot at the president, just say you’re sorry and be on your way?” Ike Reilly spits out in “Fish Plant Rebellion.” Like the best rockers, and you can count him among them, Reilly delights in wreaking havoc with polite society. He continues to do just that with “Poison the Hit Parade.”

The album is mostly demos and alternative versions of songs from some of the Midwesterner’s great earlier albums — “Duty Free,” for example, gets a more countrified arrangement. The title track — talk about causing an uproar — is new, as is the ringingly melodic “Dragonflies,” which shows Reilly has a heart, too. Put it all together, and you get a thrilling portrait of Reilly’s audacious street-poet charisma — the way he mixes elusive, Dylanesque verbiage with rock-solid hooks and a streak of hip-hop swagger. The hit parade could use this kind of “Poison.”

—Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer