Cursive - Happy Hollow
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Music CD Cover
Artist: CursiveEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-08-22
Music Label: Saddle Creek
Soundtracks:
- Opening the Hymnal/Babies
- Dorothy at Forty
- Big Bang
- Bad Sects
- Flag and Family
- Dorothy Dreams of Tornadoes
- Retreat!
- The Sunks
- At Conception
- So-So Gigilo
- Bad Science
- Into th Fold
- Rise Up! Rise Up!
- Hymns for the Heathen
Free Music Notes for Happy Hollow
Free Music Review: I find your lack of faith exciting
Hit: 5 Stars
Cursive's last album, "The Ugly Organ" was so good it was hard to believe it was a concept album. I mean, those things are supposed to be bloated and pretentious, right? Of course, they tweaked the idea a bit--in part, the "story" was about a band recording a concept album--but it was great because frontman Tim Kasher made you care about his neuroses, which is what any good writer should do. "Happy Hollow" is another concept album, with themes ranging from the grand (the American Dream) to the deeply personal (Kasher losing his religion). If it isn't quite as great as "Organ," that's probably because we've come to expect greatness from the band. Still, even if this is your first Cursive album, you'll probably be just as impressed as longtime fans.
Musically, it's a head scratcher (to me, at least) why Cursive are saddled with the "emo" tag. Kasher may be heartfelt, but the music is hardly maudlin. Their take on post-punk/hardcore is more raw than a lot of the younger bands on the Warped tour (since when did punk rock become a career option?) but also more complex. Last time out, they included a full time cello player. On "Happy Hollow" the strings are replaced by a five-piece horn section. Par for the course on a pretentious concept album, but once again Cursive don't have a pretentious bone in their body. Instead of sweeping anthems (check out the latest album by Muse for that), these songs are either straight out rockers or ballads. Since Kasher doesn't whine, Cursive holds the cheese, if you will.
It's the lyrics here that get my heart all a-flutter. Normally one has to wait for a new Bad Religion album to come out to get such a smart commentary on the perils of religious faith. For Kasher, the theological is personal. "I wasted half my life on the thought that I'd live forever," he sings in "Rise Up! Rise Up!" On "Big Bang" he observes, somewhat obviously, "There was a big bang once but the clergyman doesn't agree," but then goes on to "don't feed me lies, intelligent design." Mind you, Kasher is still searching for answers, but now he's just sure of where he won't find them.
On "Happy Hollow" Cursive use humor and honesty to deflate any whiff of pompous grandiosity that usually come attached to this business of concept albums. They don't want to make an "important" album, just a Cursive album. In that case, I'm still a believer: That old time Cursive is good enough for me.
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