Cursive — Vitriola (5 Oct. 2018) |

Cursive — Vitriola (5 Oct. 2018)
• Bylo by divné, kdyby Cursive, mistři koncepčního alba, zcela průhledně kormidlovali stav americké politiky. Předtím se zabývali četnými zločiny ve společnosti (v „Happy Hollow“ (Aug 22, 2006) se to texty točí kolem malého městečka a jeho obyvatel a zabývají se pojmy jako náboženská dogmata a pokrytectví), zatímco nejlepší album k dnešnímu dni, „The Ugly Organ“ (March 4, 2004) řešilo sex a vztahy. Label Saddle Creek ho vyzvedl z hlediska čisté psychiatricko~rockové intenzity; pak ale bylo téměř nevyhnutelné, že emo/post~hardcore hrdinové by se k tomu nakonec stejně dostali. Billboard o něm napsal, že je „náročné, přesto vysoce odměňující poslouchat.“ A tak jsme tady. Pravděpodobně částečně ovlivněni manželkou kytaristy, zpěváka a primárního skladatele Tima Kashera a jejího obecného pesimismu kolem lidských ras, „Vitriola“ vykresluje docela pěkný obraz života v roce 2018. Kasher se nikdy nevyhýbá temných témat, ačkoli zřídka byl tak explicitní, jako je tady. Již jejich první 7” „The Disruption“ (Nov. 30, 1996) obsahuje 4 skladby, u kterých již jejich názvy mají vypovídající hodnotu: „A Disruption In The Normal Swing Of Things“, „There’s A Coldest Day In Every Year“, „The Knowledgeable Hasbeens“ a „A Disruption In Our Lines Of Influence.“ Z původní sestavy však kromě Kashera zůstali Matt Maginn (bass) a Clint Schnase (drums). Steve Pedersen hrál ještě v r. 1997 na albech „Sucker and Dry“, „Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes“ (Sept. 9, 1997), „The Icebreaker“ a „The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song“ (Nov. 2, 1998). Pak v r. 1998 Cursive opustil kvůli studiu na právnické škole Duke University v Severní Karolíně poté, co absolvoval Creighton University s vysokoškolským vzděláním v politických vědách. Po něm post kytaristy převzal Ted Stevens (Lullaby for the Working Class, Mayday, Bright Eyes a McCarthy Trenching). Inu, nelze se divit, vždyť sám CONOR OBERST se narodil v Omaha, Nebraska. V interview v r. 2009 pro Gainesville.com dostali otázku od Dante Limy: „Poznamenal vás odchod violoncellistky Gretty Cohn v roce 2005, která opravdu změnila váš zvuk; jak bez ní hrajete nový materiál?“ Současnou odpovědí je..., nová violončelistka. Megan Seibe se tedy v sestavě objevuje poprvé.
• Letošní osmé album (po šesti letech) si dobře vede v Charts: US Top Current Albums (Billboard) #93, US Independent Albums (Billboard) #21, US Top Alternative Album Sales (Billboard) #14 a US Top Rock Album Sales (Billboard) #31. Má průměrné skóre 76 ze 100, což naznačuje „obecně příznivé recenze.“ Fred Thomas z AllMusic porovnává album s předchozími Cursive verzemi a říká: „I když někdy může být chápáno občas jako neoblomné, nelítostné, nepovolné a tvrdé, tyto písně nacházejí Kashera a jeho spolubojovníky ve svižné formě a houpající se na všem, co naznačuje veškerou vášeň a sílu jejich nejlepších alb.“ Channing Freemen (Sputnikmusic) činí podobné tvrzení, konkrétně porovnávající „Vitrilolu“ s „The Ugly Organ“ v jeho atmosféře, vibracích a tónu. Nicméně, Vitriola odmítá chápat hudbu jako pozitivní sílu. Kde hledat důvody? Kasher totiž nazval svět placentou („Let Me Up“) a teď ho nazývá pojmem „turd“, který potřebuje vypulírování — je to neodmyslitelně odpudivý objekt, který může být vylepšen pouze tím způsobem, že skrývá svou pravou povahu. Doslova svou identitu. V tomto smyslu dosáhl Kasher nepochybně přesného poznání, protože svět opravdu bude muset jít do háje a to kompletně. Se vším, co lze nazvat jako jeho pilíře — to jest falešné náboženství, to především. Pak ukrutně chamtivou obchodní sféru, pochopitelně celosvětově prolhanou politickou sféru jako takovou. Dále, organizovanou údernou pěst politiky, tedy vojenskou sféru.
• Takže milí hudebníci, pokud to vše aktivně podporujete, nemáte šanci přežít. Sami jste v háji a půjdete do kytek se všemi svými tretkami, tedy pardon (alby, na kterých jste se tak lopotili). Ani pes po nich neštěkne. Jednoduše, toto album zjistilo, že Kasher se zabývá kapitalismem způsobem, který nebyl slyšet od singlu „Dorothy at Forty“ (byl realizován jako teaser, hlavolam, hádanka pro album „Happy Hollow“. July 11, 2006) Ale zatímco tato píseň poukázala na excesy tzv. stereotypního amerického snu, současná píseň „Under the Rainbow“ přikročila o dva kroky blíže k našim holým životům. Až tak? Ano, tak. Možná to vždy bylo marné, jakože bylo (vzpomeňte si na knihu Kazatele), ale přinejmenším to bylo něco, na čem by se mělo dále pracovat. A teď? Teď 1% lidí žije v nepředstavitelném přepychu a tzv. high rises, že tím dokonce blokuje sílu slunce. A my ostatní jsme ponecháni na holičkách, takže „no God, no gold, nowhere to go.“
• „Remorse“ s jeho zasněným (dreamy) pianem je nejhezčí písní alba (možná to jediné, co by pracovně bylo možno nazvat jako hezké), ale i tohle skončí tím, co zní jako ustříhnuté struny. Přesto bych rád ukončil toto zamyšlení větou z koncertu Omaha 2012 o dojmech diváků: „...ale to, co se mezi námi stalo, byla překrásná kombinace překvapení a radosti. Účet byl vražedný, všichni hráli své koule a dav byl vnímavý a skutečně se bavil po celou dobu.“
• Závěr ponechávám originálnímu textu Channinga Freemana, protože to je teprve síla:
• “There’s no future, only money. No me and you, only money.” All this shit adds up, and by the time “Noble Soldier/Dystopian Lament” rolls around to put the album out of its misery, our protagonist has given up. He sings of all the things he used to do and care about, all the things that just don’t matter anymore. All those stabbing guitar chords couldn’t poke enough holes into the ballooning despair that threatens to swallow the world. Vitriola has the perfect name, suggesting a hate~spewing gramophone, grinding records into dust. There is no joyful anthem at the end, no “Staying Alive”. All this record can offer is solidarity to the hopeless and a dwindling expectation that the jagged teeth of the ugly organ won’t cut too deeply.
• Oh, and some dubious advice: “Don’t lose your head. You can’t afford to lose that.”
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Album release: October 5th, 2018
Recorded: at Omaha, NE’s ARC Studios
Record Label: 15 Passenger
Duration: 44:43
Tracks:
01. Free To Be or Not To Be You and Me 3:27
02. Pick Up the Pieces 3:25
03. It’s Gonna Hurt 5:32
04. Under the Rainbow 3:19
05. Remorse 3:24
06. Ouroboros 6:00
07. Everending 4:11
08. Ghost Writer 3:07
09. Life Savings 4:40
10. Noble Soldier / Dystopian Lament 7:28
Cursive is:
✹ Tim Kasher (vocals/guitar),
✹ Ted Stevens (guitar/vocals),
✹ Matt Maginn (bass),
✹ Clint Schnase (drums), and
✹ Patrick Newbery (keys), with
✹ Megan Siebe on cello.
✹ Mike Mogis (additional instrumentation)
Description:
• Over the past two decades, Cursive has become known for writing smart, tightly woven concept albums where frontman Tim Kasher turns his unflinching gaze on specific, oftentimes challenging themes, and examines them with an incisively brutal honesty. 2000’s Domestica dealt with divorce; 2003’s The Ugly Organ tackled art, sex, and relationships; 2006’s Happy Hollow skewered organized religion; 2009’s Mama, I’m Swollen grappled with the human condition and social morality; and 2012’s I Am Gemini explored the battle between good and evil. But the band’s remarkable eighth full~length, Vitriola, required a different approach — one less rigidly themed and more responsive as the band struggles with existentialism veering towards nihilism and despair; the ways in which society, much like a writer, creates and destroys; and an oncoming dystopia that feels eerily near at hand.
• Cursive has naturally developed a pattern of releasing new music every three years, creating records not out of obligation, but need, with the mindset that each record could potentially be their last. 2015 came and went, however, and the band remained silent for their longest period to date. But the members of Cursive have remained busy with solo records, a movie (the Kasher~penned and directed No Resolution), and running businesses (the band collectively owns and operates hometown Omaha’s mainstay bar/venue, O’Leaver’s). The band even launched their own label, 15 Passenger, through which they’re steadily reissuing their remastered back catalogue, as well as new albums by Kasher, Campdogzz, and David Bazan and Sean Lane. And like many others, the band members have been caught up in the inescapable state of confusion and instability that plagues their home country, and seems to grow more chaotic with each passing day.
• Which brings us to 2018 and Vitriola. For the first time since Happy Hollow, the album reunites Kasher, guitarist/singer Ted Stevens and bassist Matt Maginn with founding drummer Clint Schnase, as well as co~producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Jenny Lewis) at ARC Studios in Omaha. They’re joined by Patrick Newbery on keys (who’s been a full~time member for years) and touring mainstay Megan Siebe on cello. Schnase and Maginn are in rare form, picking up right where they left off with a rhythmic lockstep of viscera~vibrating bass and toms, providing a foundation for Kasher and Stevens’ intertwining guitars and Newbery and Siebe’s cinematic flourishes. The album runs the sonic gamut between rich, resonant melodicism, Hitchcockian anxiety, and explosive catharsis — and no Cursive album would be complete without scream~along melodies and lyrics that, upon reflection, make for unlikely anthems.
• There’s a palpable unease that wells beneath Vitriola’s simmering requiems and fist~shakers. Fiery opener “Free To Be or Not To Be You and Me” reflects the album’s core: a search for meaning that keeps coming up empty, and finding the will to keep going despite the fear of a dark future. The album directs frustration and anger at not only modern society and the universe at large, but also inward towards ourselves. On “Under the Rainbow,” disquiet boils into rage that indicts the complacency of the privileged classes; “Ghost Writer” has a catchy pulse that belies Kasher chastising himself for writing about writing; and “Noble Soldier/Dystopian Lament” is a haunting look at potential societal collapse that provides little in the way of hope but balances beauty and horror on the head of a pin.
• Vitriola raises a stark question: is this it? Is everything simply broken, leaving us hopeless and nihilistic? Maybe not. There can be reassurance in commiseration, and the album is deeply relatable: Cursive may not be offering the answers, but there is hope in knowing you’re not alone in the chaos.
PRESS RELEASE:
• Cursive has announced their first new album in six years, Vitriola, will be released on October 5, 2018 via their own label, 15 Passenger and with their friends Big Scary Monsters in Europe. NPR Music premiered lead single „Life Savings“ this morning alongside an interview with singer/guitarist Tim Kasher; A foreboding track that carries a heavy weight despite its soaring bridge, „Life Savings“ sets the tone for the rest of Vitriola and in many ways encapsulates all things Cursive: seething vocals, angular and intertwining guitars, bone~quaking bass, and pounding drums — which are courtesy of founding member Clint Schnase for the first time since 2006’s Happy Hollow. Vitriola is Cursive’s debut self~release of a new album through 15 Passenger.
• Recorded at hometown Omaha, NE’s ARC Studios with Mike Mogis — who last co~produced with Cursive on Happy Hollow — Vitriola takes a different approach than the tightly woven conceptual albums of the band’s past. It is less rigidly themed and more responsive, and finds the band struggling with existentialism veering towards nihilism and despair; the ways in which society, much like a writer, creates and destroys; and an oncoming dystopia that feels eerily near at hand. There’s a palpable unease that wells beneath Vitriola’s simmering requiems and fist~shakers: at its core, the album is about a search for meaning that keeps coming up empty, and finding the will to keep going despite the fear of a dark future. The album directs frustration and anger not only at the universe at large and a modern society that seems to grow more confusing, unstable, and chaotic with each passing day, but also inwardly towards ourselves — illustrating an uncommon self~awareness that’s become a hallmark of Kasher’s songwriting. „Vitriola was written as a reaction to an ulcer I now live with as a result of all the ‘vitriol’ seeping into our daily lives,“ explains Kasher. „Rather than contributing to the anger, hopefully this record can be witnessed as a reflection of our collective anxieties, and perhaps offer a little catharsis.“
• Sonically, Vitriola runs the gamut between rich, resonant melodicism, Hitchcockian anxiety (frequently courtesy of Patrick Newbery’s keys and Megan Siebe’s cello, an instrument used here again for the first time since The Ugly Organ), and powerful dynamics — and no Cursive album would be complete without scream~along lyrics that make for unlikely anthems.
• Cursive — joined by touring drummer Pat Oakes — will head out on a month~long tour of the U.S. this fall, beginning October 18 in Kansas City, MO. The tour will wrap up on November 18th with an Omaha show and includes an October 26 stop at The Fest 17 in Gainesville, FL and a November 7 stop at Irving Plaza in New York, NY. Meat Wave and Campdogzz — their first non~Cursive signing to 15 Passenger that released a new album, In Rounds, last week — will support on most shows.
REVIEW
By Ben Lynch / 02 OCTOBER 2018, 06:00 BST / Score: 7
• It would have been weird if Cursive, masters of the concept album, steered totally clear of the state of US politics.
• Previously addressing numerous ills in society (organised religion took a beating on Happy Hollow, whereas the band’s best record to date, The Ugly Organ, tackled sex and relationships), it felt almost inevitable that the emo/post~hardcore heroes would get to it eventually. And so, here we are.
• Supposedly partially influenced by the wife of guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter Tim Kasher, and her general pessimism about the human race, Vitriola paints a pretty bleak picture of life in 2018. Kasher has never shied away from dark subject matter, though rarely has he been as explicit as he is here.
• Repeated references to paranoia and self~loathing („I don’t wanna live forever / I can’t bear the agony“ on „Everending“ and „I am a parasite“ on „Ouroboros“) reflect the personal response to wider issues in society, as well as a concerning amount of personal frustration. This balancing act of the impact of the world at large and internal conflicts is one of the primary strengths of the record, as Kasher successfully avoids a strict social commentary.
• Standout track „It’s Gonna Hurt“ meanwhile is prime Cursive, accompanied by a cello that could have been plucked straight out of Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica. Elsewhere, „Pick up the Pieces“ is Kasher at his most furious, with Matt Maginn’s bassline combining his own brand of authority with a sense of groove that he does so well.
• Unlike the strongest Cursive records, however, Vitriola fails to make its subject matter really squeeze itself out of your headphones and subsequently take over your life. „Under The Rainbow“ sounds like a tired punk trying his best to berate the establishment. „Life Savings“, meanwhile, is a similarly stale attack on modern life and its obsession with wealth. You trust Kasher and every word he says; you just don’t feel like fighting for him like you do when he’s at the top of his game.
• Where Domestica broke your heart, Vitriola only manages to get you half riled at the world around you. Kasher and co. continue to produce records that hit the nail on the head in terms of topic. This time, however, the hammer blows aren’t what they’ve been before.
• https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/
Website: https://cursivevitriola.com/
Label: https://15passenger.com/
Channing Freeman: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/78101/Cursive-Vitriola/
Interview, By Dante Lima: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20091203/cursive-singer-shoots-straight-about-bands-sound-and-tour
_____________________________________________________________
Cursive — Vitriola (5 Oct. 2018) |
• Letošní osmé album (po šesti letech) si dobře vede v Charts: US Top Current Albums (Billboard) #93, US Independent Albums (Billboard) #21, US Top Alternative Album Sales (Billboard) #14 a US Top Rock Album Sales (Billboard) #31. Má průměrné skóre 76 ze 100, což naznačuje „obecně příznivé recenze.“ Fred Thomas z AllMusic porovnává album s předchozími Cursive verzemi a říká: „I když někdy může být chápáno občas jako neoblomné, nelítostné, nepovolné a tvrdé, tyto písně nacházejí Kashera a jeho spolubojovníky ve svižné formě a houpající se na všem, co naznačuje veškerou vášeň a sílu jejich nejlepších alb.“ Channing Freemen (Sputnikmusic) činí podobné tvrzení, konkrétně porovnávající „Vitrilolu“ s „The Ugly Organ“ v jeho atmosféře, vibracích a tónu. Nicméně, Vitriola odmítá chápat hudbu jako pozitivní sílu. Kde hledat důvody? Kasher totiž nazval svět placentou („Let Me Up“) a teď ho nazývá pojmem „turd“, který potřebuje vypulírování — je to neodmyslitelně odpudivý objekt, který může být vylepšen pouze tím způsobem, že skrývá svou pravou povahu. Doslova svou identitu. V tomto smyslu dosáhl Kasher nepochybně přesného poznání, protože svět opravdu bude muset jít do háje a to kompletně. Se vším, co lze nazvat jako jeho pilíře — to jest falešné náboženství, to především. Pak ukrutně chamtivou obchodní sféru, pochopitelně celosvětově prolhanou politickou sféru jako takovou. Dále, organizovanou údernou pěst politiky, tedy vojenskou sféru.
• Takže milí hudebníci, pokud to vše aktivně podporujete, nemáte šanci přežít. Sami jste v háji a půjdete do kytek se všemi svými tretkami, tedy pardon (alby, na kterých jste se tak lopotili). Ani pes po nich neštěkne. Jednoduše, toto album zjistilo, že Kasher se zabývá kapitalismem způsobem, který nebyl slyšet od singlu „Dorothy at Forty“ (byl realizován jako teaser, hlavolam, hádanka pro album „Happy Hollow“. July 11, 2006) Ale zatímco tato píseň poukázala na excesy tzv. stereotypního amerického snu, současná píseň „Under the Rainbow“ přikročila o dva kroky blíže k našim holým životům. Až tak? Ano, tak. Možná to vždy bylo marné, jakože bylo (vzpomeňte si na knihu Kazatele), ale přinejmenším to bylo něco, na čem by se mělo dále pracovat. A teď? Teď 1% lidí žije v nepředstavitelném přepychu a tzv. high rises, že tím dokonce blokuje sílu slunce. A my ostatní jsme ponecháni na holičkách, takže „no God, no gold, nowhere to go.“
• „Remorse“ s jeho zasněným (dreamy) pianem je nejhezčí písní alba (možná to jediné, co by pracovně bylo možno nazvat jako hezké), ale i tohle skončí tím, co zní jako ustříhnuté struny. Přesto bych rád ukončil toto zamyšlení větou z koncertu Omaha 2012 o dojmech diváků: „...ale to, co se mezi námi stalo, byla překrásná kombinace překvapení a radosti. Účet byl vražedný, všichni hráli své koule a dav byl vnímavý a skutečně se bavil po celou dobu.“
• Závěr ponechávám originálnímu textu Channinga Freemana, protože to je teprve síla:
• “There’s no future, only money. No me and you, only money.” All this shit adds up, and by the time “Noble Soldier/Dystopian Lament” rolls around to put the album out of its misery, our protagonist has given up. He sings of all the things he used to do and care about, all the things that just don’t matter anymore. All those stabbing guitar chords couldn’t poke enough holes into the ballooning despair that threatens to swallow the world. Vitriola has the perfect name, suggesting a hate~spewing gramophone, grinding records into dust. There is no joyful anthem at the end, no “Staying Alive”. All this record can offer is solidarity to the hopeless and a dwindling expectation that the jagged teeth of the ugly organ won’t cut too deeply.
• Oh, and some dubious advice: “Don’t lose your head. You can’t afford to lose that.”
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Album release: October 5th, 2018
Recorded: at Omaha, NE’s ARC Studios
Record Label: 15 Passenger
Duration: 44:43
Tracks:
01. Free To Be or Not To Be You and Me 3:27
02. Pick Up the Pieces 3:25
03. It’s Gonna Hurt 5:32
04. Under the Rainbow 3:19
05. Remorse 3:24
06. Ouroboros 6:00
07. Everending 4:11
08. Ghost Writer 3:07
09. Life Savings 4:40
10. Noble Soldier / Dystopian Lament 7:28
Cursive is:
✹ Tim Kasher (vocals/guitar),
✹ Ted Stevens (guitar/vocals),
✹ Matt Maginn (bass),
✹ Clint Schnase (drums), and
✹ Patrick Newbery (keys), with
✹ Megan Siebe on cello.
✹ Mike Mogis (additional instrumentation)
Description:
• Over the past two decades, Cursive has become known for writing smart, tightly woven concept albums where frontman Tim Kasher turns his unflinching gaze on specific, oftentimes challenging themes, and examines them with an incisively brutal honesty. 2000’s Domestica dealt with divorce; 2003’s The Ugly Organ tackled art, sex, and relationships; 2006’s Happy Hollow skewered organized religion; 2009’s Mama, I’m Swollen grappled with the human condition and social morality; and 2012’s I Am Gemini explored the battle between good and evil. But the band’s remarkable eighth full~length, Vitriola, required a different approach — one less rigidly themed and more responsive as the band struggles with existentialism veering towards nihilism and despair; the ways in which society, much like a writer, creates and destroys; and an oncoming dystopia that feels eerily near at hand.
• Cursive has naturally developed a pattern of releasing new music every three years, creating records not out of obligation, but need, with the mindset that each record could potentially be their last. 2015 came and went, however, and the band remained silent for their longest period to date. But the members of Cursive have remained busy with solo records, a movie (the Kasher~penned and directed No Resolution), and running businesses (the band collectively owns and operates hometown Omaha’s mainstay bar/venue, O’Leaver’s). The band even launched their own label, 15 Passenger, through which they’re steadily reissuing their remastered back catalogue, as well as new albums by Kasher, Campdogzz, and David Bazan and Sean Lane. And like many others, the band members have been caught up in the inescapable state of confusion and instability that plagues their home country, and seems to grow more chaotic with each passing day.
• Which brings us to 2018 and Vitriola. For the first time since Happy Hollow, the album reunites Kasher, guitarist/singer Ted Stevens and bassist Matt Maginn with founding drummer Clint Schnase, as well as co~producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, M. Ward, Jenny Lewis) at ARC Studios in Omaha. They’re joined by Patrick Newbery on keys (who’s been a full~time member for years) and touring mainstay Megan Siebe on cello. Schnase and Maginn are in rare form, picking up right where they left off with a rhythmic lockstep of viscera~vibrating bass and toms, providing a foundation for Kasher and Stevens’ intertwining guitars and Newbery and Siebe’s cinematic flourishes. The album runs the sonic gamut between rich, resonant melodicism, Hitchcockian anxiety, and explosive catharsis — and no Cursive album would be complete without scream~along melodies and lyrics that, upon reflection, make for unlikely anthems.
• There’s a palpable unease that wells beneath Vitriola’s simmering requiems and fist~shakers. Fiery opener “Free To Be or Not To Be You and Me” reflects the album’s core: a search for meaning that keeps coming up empty, and finding the will to keep going despite the fear of a dark future. The album directs frustration and anger at not only modern society and the universe at large, but also inward towards ourselves. On “Under the Rainbow,” disquiet boils into rage that indicts the complacency of the privileged classes; “Ghost Writer” has a catchy pulse that belies Kasher chastising himself for writing about writing; and “Noble Soldier/Dystopian Lament” is a haunting look at potential societal collapse that provides little in the way of hope but balances beauty and horror on the head of a pin.
• Vitriola raises a stark question: is this it? Is everything simply broken, leaving us hopeless and nihilistic? Maybe not. There can be reassurance in commiseration, and the album is deeply relatable: Cursive may not be offering the answers, but there is hope in knowing you’re not alone in the chaos.
PRESS RELEASE:
• Cursive has announced their first new album in six years, Vitriola, will be released on October 5, 2018 via their own label, 15 Passenger and with their friends Big Scary Monsters in Europe. NPR Music premiered lead single „Life Savings“ this morning alongside an interview with singer/guitarist Tim Kasher; A foreboding track that carries a heavy weight despite its soaring bridge, „Life Savings“ sets the tone for the rest of Vitriola and in many ways encapsulates all things Cursive: seething vocals, angular and intertwining guitars, bone~quaking bass, and pounding drums — which are courtesy of founding member Clint Schnase for the first time since 2006’s Happy Hollow. Vitriola is Cursive’s debut self~release of a new album through 15 Passenger.
• Recorded at hometown Omaha, NE’s ARC Studios with Mike Mogis — who last co~produced with Cursive on Happy Hollow — Vitriola takes a different approach than the tightly woven conceptual albums of the band’s past. It is less rigidly themed and more responsive, and finds the band struggling with existentialism veering towards nihilism and despair; the ways in which society, much like a writer, creates and destroys; and an oncoming dystopia that feels eerily near at hand. There’s a palpable unease that wells beneath Vitriola’s simmering requiems and fist~shakers: at its core, the album is about a search for meaning that keeps coming up empty, and finding the will to keep going despite the fear of a dark future. The album directs frustration and anger not only at the universe at large and a modern society that seems to grow more confusing, unstable, and chaotic with each passing day, but also inwardly towards ourselves — illustrating an uncommon self~awareness that’s become a hallmark of Kasher’s songwriting. „Vitriola was written as a reaction to an ulcer I now live with as a result of all the ‘vitriol’ seeping into our daily lives,“ explains Kasher. „Rather than contributing to the anger, hopefully this record can be witnessed as a reflection of our collective anxieties, and perhaps offer a little catharsis.“
• Sonically, Vitriola runs the gamut between rich, resonant melodicism, Hitchcockian anxiety (frequently courtesy of Patrick Newbery’s keys and Megan Siebe’s cello, an instrument used here again for the first time since The Ugly Organ), and powerful dynamics — and no Cursive album would be complete without scream~along lyrics that make for unlikely anthems.
• Cursive — joined by touring drummer Pat Oakes — will head out on a month~long tour of the U.S. this fall, beginning October 18 in Kansas City, MO. The tour will wrap up on November 18th with an Omaha show and includes an October 26 stop at The Fest 17 in Gainesville, FL and a November 7 stop at Irving Plaza in New York, NY. Meat Wave and Campdogzz — their first non~Cursive signing to 15 Passenger that released a new album, In Rounds, last week — will support on most shows.
REVIEW
By Ben Lynch / 02 OCTOBER 2018, 06:00 BST / Score: 7
• It would have been weird if Cursive, masters of the concept album, steered totally clear of the state of US politics.
• Previously addressing numerous ills in society (organised religion took a beating on Happy Hollow, whereas the band’s best record to date, The Ugly Organ, tackled sex and relationships), it felt almost inevitable that the emo/post~hardcore heroes would get to it eventually. And so, here we are.
• Supposedly partially influenced by the wife of guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter Tim Kasher, and her general pessimism about the human race, Vitriola paints a pretty bleak picture of life in 2018. Kasher has never shied away from dark subject matter, though rarely has he been as explicit as he is here.
• Repeated references to paranoia and self~loathing („I don’t wanna live forever / I can’t bear the agony“ on „Everending“ and „I am a parasite“ on „Ouroboros“) reflect the personal response to wider issues in society, as well as a concerning amount of personal frustration. This balancing act of the impact of the world at large and internal conflicts is one of the primary strengths of the record, as Kasher successfully avoids a strict social commentary.
• Standout track „It’s Gonna Hurt“ meanwhile is prime Cursive, accompanied by a cello that could have been plucked straight out of Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica. Elsewhere, „Pick up the Pieces“ is Kasher at his most furious, with Matt Maginn’s bassline combining his own brand of authority with a sense of groove that he does so well.
• Unlike the strongest Cursive records, however, Vitriola fails to make its subject matter really squeeze itself out of your headphones and subsequently take over your life. „Under The Rainbow“ sounds like a tired punk trying his best to berate the establishment. „Life Savings“, meanwhile, is a similarly stale attack on modern life and its obsession with wealth. You trust Kasher and every word he says; you just don’t feel like fighting for him like you do when he’s at the top of his game.
• Where Domestica broke your heart, Vitriola only manages to get you half riled at the world around you. Kasher and co. continue to produce records that hit the nail on the head in terms of topic. This time, however, the hammer blows aren’t what they’ve been before.
• https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/
Website: https://cursivevitriola.com/
Label: https://15passenger.com/
Channing Freeman: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/78101/Cursive-Vitriola/
Interview, By Dante Lima: https://www.gainesville.com/news/20091203/cursive-singer-shoots-straight-about-bands-sound-and-tour
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