CURSIVE

CURSIVE
DOMESTICA (2000)
320 KBPS

A hard-rocking emo album about heartbreak? How stunningly original! Look at this album art, too — this is hardcore, baby. Snicker. Sarcasm (and a pretentious name format) aside, Cursive’s Domestica is a damn good piece of hard emo/indie rock. Tim Kasher’s voice and lyrical abilities lend themselves to the subject matter, as does his recent divorce. So long as one doesn’t mind the fact that many of the songs lack a chorus, this may be the album at the top of the emo pile. Most of the tracks here have interesting structures that follow either a verse-solo-verse-bridge-random solo or 2nd bridge-verse format, or something completely new. Unfortunately, the lyrics on Domestica aren’t up to par with those on Cursive’s previous album, Storms of Early Summer, or those of his side project, The Good Life. Instead, these suspected autobiographical lyrics make repeated references to an angelic lover and a thrown telephone. Nonfiction is nice, but variety is preferable. At any rate, Domestica is one of those albums that will grab you - whether it lets go depends on your taste.

1. Casualty
2. Martyr
3. Shallow Means, Deep Ends
4. Making Friends and Acquaintances
5. Red So Deep
6. Lament of Pretty Baby
7. Game of Who Needs Who the Worst
8. Radiator Hums
9. Night I Lost the Will to Fight