By: BUY IT, BURN IT, SKIP IT: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cursive, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone | self-titled magazine :: s/t daily

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:52:04 +0000

[...] Rarely, if ever, has Cursive frontman Tim Kasher been accused of making “pretty” music. Bleeding-heart lyrics? Yeah. Themes of Catholic guilt? You bet. All around emo as fuck? Definitely. But pretty? Never. Even Gretta Cohn’s cello on 2003’s impeccable The Ugly Organ gave the Omaha group a morose anchor for its heartbroken, love-gnashing guitars. It was beautiful. But it wasn’t really pretty. Mama, I’m Swollen is pretty, from start to finish. Kasher, still forlorn as a lyricist, indulges an upbeat musical itch, letting a never-before-heard aesthetic cheerfulness envelope his biting tales of human depth and critical wit. The touch of tenderness suits Kasher, far enough removed from the emotional nastiness of 2000’s Domestica and singing more like Robert Smith than his old demented yelp. But maybe it’s best to let Kasher explain the record in his own words. [...]

Comments on: FREE ASSOCIATION: Tim Kasher Borrows From ‘Blood Meridian’ & That Pointy Bastard Pinocchio On Cursive’s Sixth LP, “Mama, I’m Swollen”

By: BUY IT, BURN IT, SKIP IT: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cursive, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone | self-titled magazine :: s/t daily