Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard recently discussed the band's next album:

The next record will be a little softer. I'm interested in writing a very different type of record next time. I feel like there's a lot of beauty in the darkness of Narrow Stairs, but that's not really a place I'm ready to go to for a while. I'm interested in taking a different approach and having the next record be different in tone -- I'm just not interested in making another dark, dark album. Just not two in a row. I felt pretty exhausted when we got done with Stairs.

The band released Narrow Stairs in 2008.