Cursive - The Ugly Organ
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.16 You Save: $4.82 (40%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.52 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for The Ugly Organ
Free Music Review: Art is Hard
Hit: 5 Stars
After hearing Domestica, I couldn't wait for Cursive's new release. While I thought it'd be impossible, Cursive has put together an album that is even stronger than Domestica. The addition of Gretta Cohn on cello has added a whole other dimension to the music. The use of piano and organ also adds more to the sound, fleshing out the sound more than on Domestica. Most of the songs have the trademark Cursive sound which is pretty much difficult, if not impossible, to describe. Dissonant guitars laid over drums that often take unexpected changes. The cello contributes to this album in more ways than one can imagine. One of the things I like about Cursive is their ability to write challenging songs - usually you can tell where the melody of a song is headed the first time you hear it. With Cursive, they occasionally pull that rug out from under you and take an abrupt turn in the opposite direction.
The lyrics are insightful and a joy to listen to and Tim Kasher's voice, while nowhere near perfect, is perfectly suited to the music he makes. I can't really think of the words to describe this album other than perfect and beautiful. If you like Cursive, you owe it to yourself to pick up this album. If you've never heard Cursive, there's no better time than now. As someone else suggested, this may very well be one of the best albums of 2003.
So go buy it. Now.
Free Music Review: "Oh, Cursive is so cool!"
Hit: 5 Stars
Cursive has been my favorite band for a couple years now. I love how emotional the lyrics and music are--and I'm a sucker for a sad song. Now after listening to the lyrics of "The Ugly Organ," I feel a little sad myself. I think much of the album is about the effects of years of performing and selling music that's written mostly about pain and depravity. I'm sorry for feeding off the lyricist's pain. I can't imagine performing such painfully emotional music for so long (look at their latest tour schedule--they're playing almost every day for months). The band seems to have been going in a different direction lately with "Burst and Bloom" and their split with Eastern Youth (buy that album, either band's songs alone are worth the price of admission--together they're a steal). Just in case the members of the band are reading this, as a fan, I'd much rather that they change their lyrical style than to feign or dredge up pain to continue their existing format. I certainly don't want to see this talented group burn out."The Ugly Organ" is a great album by itself, but I suggest people who haven't heard Cursive before (or haven't heard anything before "Burst and Bloom") start with the first LP "The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song". If you start from the beginning, you'll have a better understanding of their lastest album.
Free Music Review: A departure, but a move in the right direction
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is as close to genius as anything I've heard lately. Vulnerable, brooding and very emotional, this album seems to detail the artist's feelings about his failed relationship and picking up afterwords. The songs are indivisible, but my favorites are "The Recluse", "Sierra" and "Driftwood: A Fairy Tale".
The title's obvious phallic allusion is carried on throughout the album through themes of cheap sexual promiscuity and the general loathing that ensues. Throughout the album both artist and listener are lost in a labyrinth of subjective morality, and the pain of loss is always close at hand. However, the album's true journey is one toward self discovery and hope, ending with the heavenly chorus of "Staying Alive".
This is an excellent over all album. I found that the lyrics forced me to sympathise and the emotion should be enough to reach anyone. I also especially enjoyed the cello, which is featured heavily. I would recommend this album to anyone, certainly those who like indie or want a departure from typical emo (though this work does not allow itself to be cornered into those genres). This album has made me a fan of Cursive and I am looking forward to seeing them at the Curiosa Festival.
Free Music Review: Chaos has never sounded so beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
With the increase of purchasing music off the internet, some may think that the idea of a band putting out an "album" may become obsolete. I do not agree with this. I do believe though, that for the idea of albums to survive, the albums must prove worthy of being purchased, cd, liner notes, and all. Cursive's "The Ugly Organ" is one of those must purchase albums. Written as though the album was a play, this album weaves us through a bitter, melancholy life of a man and his problems with music, love, and relationships. To many, this may just sound like another, typical emo/indie release. But what makes this album different and so much better, is it's beautiful, but haunting cello. Tim Kasher is already a gifted lyricist and musician, but the cello brings a classical element to a very loud and, at times, chaotic album.
But even it's chaos proves worthy. The music in "A Gentleman Caller" sounds drunk, like it's reflecting the mood of the lyrics. "Butcher the Song" is very choppy. "The Recluse" is held back and hidden. The music, with the addition of the cello, work together with the lyrics and the concepts and produce an album worthy of extremely high praise.
Album's will survive if they are all as good as this.
Free Music Review: Art Is Hard
Hit: 5 Stars
Do you remember the days of listening to Weezer's Pinkerton continually, each lyric sticking out as if you wrote it, and you even checked out a copy of "Madame Butterfly" so you could catch all of the allusions? Sure you do. An entire generation was brought up on that album, but for some reason any band that tries to repeat that open diary confession gets weighed down with cheesy lyircs that drown in saccharine self-pity (including Weezer oddly enough). These emo bands seemed to understand just one thing: self-pity. Cursive knows that no matter how awful a relationship, and no matter how "wronged" you've been, you'll do something just as morally reprehensible despite, or because, of what's been done to you. What Cursive understands, and so did Weezer once upon a time, is that self-loathing is even more a part of a break up than self-pity. The Ugly Organ is the new Pinkerton. The lyrics aren't bland exclamations of emotion, but rather clever image laden diatribes that are ironic, but fall short of being too self-conscious for their own good. In other words, they're a representation of the conflicting thoughts and emotions we feel whenever we confront the worst of our own nature.