Scripted Failures

No one will likely argue that music is mood-dependent, to be sure. What can be amazing in one mood can seem so boring or uninteresting in another mood. It’s in this light that I write this review.

This morning, at work, as I trudged through a couple of software tests I needed to run, I plugged in my trusty iPod and tried to decide what I wanted to listen to. I eventually decided on the Cursive Mama, I’m Swollen bonus tracks, which I hadn’t listened to yet, but which came downloadable with the LP. It was fun to hear the demos of the original songs, and interesting to hear the songs that didn’t make it. But I found that I didn’t really care very much about it.

Next, I decided on The Fire Theft. I’d been hearing about this one for ages from fellow SF-blogger Justin, but I never managed to get around to giving it a full listen. I got about halfway through their self-titled album and found that I was getting bored.

It was then that I realized what I really needed. Comfort music. I’ve been feeling unusually down today (I blame it on Monday), and I tried to think of the last album that really made my smile. That was The Gaslight Anthem’s The ‘59 Sound (which I only recently discovered, as 2008 just had too much music to digest).

As I’m listening to it right now, it’s, unsurprisingly, making me feel a lot better. Like a warm blanket when you’re cold, The Gaslight Anthem delivers nostalgia, sadness, and hope, but you’re safely sheltered from the experiences by brilliant hooks, beautiful melodies, and (I mean this in the best possible way) predictably delectable arrangements.

Their hapless country charm shines humility on them, and that coupled with the 60’s-era spring vocal delay, it’s nigh-impossible not to feel the sincerity in Brian Fallon’s voice. Their hit single, “The ‘59 Sound,” is one of the saddest and yet most loving songs that’s hit me lately. I won’t bother to quote any of it out of context, because it works so much better as a piece.

The only negative thing I can say about this album is that thirteen tracks may have been a bit ambitious. It hurts to say, but by the end, I’m ready for it to be over. And the cardinal rule of music (and maybe of all arts/entertainment) is “Leave Them Wanting More.” Well, it may not be immediately, but when you’re feeling down (or even blissful), you’ll definitely find yourself crawling back into this record like a frightened puppy in a thunderstorm.

I was reading a nifty interview with Jason Kulbel of Saddle Creek records (once again from (d)NOT) and he let something slip that made me start. When asked if they might use Cursive’s $1-a-day model for any other releases, here’s what he said:

[W]e don’t have plans to do this with the Beep Beep record or the Tokyo Police Club records that come out later this month.

What new TPC records? It’s been a year since Elephant Shell, which was phenomenal, but I haven’t heard anything about a new release. Did he misspeak? I’m incredibly curious…

Cursive’s new album, Mama, I’m Swollen, is selling for $2.00 digitally today at the Saddle Creek store. It was $1.00 yesterday, and it’s going to increase $1.00 a day until the physical release date on the 10th. I just bought it (even though I’m buying the physical one) so that I can hear it early legally. Sweet deal. Awesome band.

For those of you not into Cursive, a good entry point is probably The Ugly Organ, as it’s the album that got me into them.

So I’ve been listening to a lot of Cursive’s Domestica lately.  It’s one of those records that just seems to go through frequent cycles of high-rotation.  This time around, however, I paid attention more to the themes of the record and noticed more than a couple of parallels, so I decided to figure out once and for all what the common threads were in these songs and share them with you. The following table illustrates my findings:

As you can see “The Radiator Hums” exemplifies the most of all of these common threads.  I should do this for all of their albums (that is neither a threat, nor a promise).