In this study, a novel microwave absorber which consists of a structural part, a resistive sheet, and a low dielectric layer is proposed. Unlike the conventional Salisbury screen, a newly proposed absorber is capable of a range of absorbing performance, from narrowband to broadband. In the case of the narrowband absorber, the fabricated absorber with optimized design parameters has a strong resonance at 9.25 GHz and reflection loss of -44 dB with satisfying the -10 dB absorption in whole X-band (8.2 GHz~12.4 GHz). For the broadband absorber design, the reflectivity was minimized in the considered frequency ranges. The designed absorber showed two weak resonances near 6.5 GHz and 16.5 GHz and satisfied the -10 dB absorption from C-band to Ku-band (4 GHz~18 GHz). The measured reflection loss of fabricated absorber was well matched with simulation results, though the measurement was only performed on X-band. For the Salisbury screen to be capable of broadband absorption, it should be stacked multiply in a structure known as the Jaumann absorber. However, for the microwave absorber presented here, broadband as well as narrowband capabilities can be implemented without a change of the structure.