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Cursive
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The Ugly Organ
Saddle Creek Records
Release: 03/04/2003
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Rated:
Review by:
Derik Hendrickson
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Tim Kasher, Matt McGinn, and Clint Schnase have been
playing music together for years. Not just in Cursive, but in
at least two other bands in the formative years: The March
Hares and Slowdown Virginia. This was the early 90's, and
somehow it seems obvious at this point looking back that
there was something bigger and better on the horizon.
Cursive has proven they are it.
Cursive's first surprise for the music buying public was
Domestica, released on Saddle Creek in 2000.
This was nine of the most intense and honest songs that
indie rock music had heard in a long, long time. Each track
is a different take on the emotions and thoughts that Kasher
worked through as he watched his marriage crumble; and
somehow his presentation was such that the entire
underground music community started to pay
attention.
With an ever-changing approach, Kasher went on to start a
side project called The Good Life to prove he didn't have to
write heavy hard-hitting songs to prove a point or expel his
demons. Songs apologizing to his mother for being such a
failure have shown his point has been proven well. Another
popular spin-off of Cursive was The White Octave, featuring
a former guitarist of the band. These bands are from
Omaha, Nebraska, and they'll continue to claim it as home,
unlike other Nebraska natives (311) that decide to leave
home to get noticed, without looking back.
Living life on the road, one would think that maintaining the
course set forth would be good enough. Pushing the
boundaries on each and every record, and trying new things
is one step beyond that, and can be much more difficult.
Tim Kasher, Matt McGinn, and Clint Schnase have teamed up
with Ted Stevens and cellist Gretta Cohn to record their most
exceptional recording to date. This time it's an album in the
form of a play. It's called The Ugly Organ.
Fouty minutes of playing time, this album appears to be the
story of an organist and his imaginary audience.
"The Ugly Organist" is the intro to the story, a soliloquy of
sorts that finds the organist addressing no one, but
explaining things completely, "Sing Along - I'm on the ugly
organ/There's no use to keep a secret/everything I hide
ends up in lyrics/so read on - accuse me when you're
done/if it sounds like I did you wrong." Then the chorus hits,
"Our father, who art in heaven/save me from the wreck I'm
about to drown in/Didn't I learn anything counting out/my
sins on rosary beads?"
Moving on to respond to the intro, is the track "Art Is Hard."
Then we delve deeper into the mind of "The
Recluse."
The sixth track, "Butcher The Song," is set in a parking lot of
a department store. According to the scene notes, a kettle
drum begins as a girl refuses to get into a boyfriend's car.
The song is the two interacting (again, with the brutal
honesty that comes out in Kasher's lyrics.) The girl finally
gets in the car, but sits with her arms crossed. Lyrics of her
mood begin, "So rub it in/In your dumb lyrics/Yeah, that's
the time and place to wring out your bullshit/And each album
I'll get shit on a little more." The boyfriend responds, "I'm
writing songs to entertain/But these people/They just want
pain/They want to hear my deepest sins/The songs from the
ugly organ/And what comes out is a horrible mess/song's I
can't forget/What's been said and this guilt I can't shed."
Then the organist shows himself again, this time in a
butcher's costume. The song ends with "What A Lovely
Day/Says the butcher as he raises his arm."
The story continues as we move on to fairy tales and
adultery, then on to the story about the surly village drunk -
described here as Harold Weathervein, the town
weatherman.
Haunted by ghosts and images of murder, the organist
continues to swim in thoughts and struggle with reality.
Remembering a child he'll never know, and deciding at the
end of the day to stay alive and fight another day. Cursive's
masterpiece ends with the ghost chorus singing, "Doo Doo
Doo Doo / The worst is over." The Staying Alive choir
consists of members of The Faint, Bright Eyes, and other
Saddle Creek bands.
In most cases, concept albums are strange - they don't
make as much sense to the listener, and artists tend to get
lost in something as complete as one full story on an album.
This album works perfectly. Less a rock opera, and more a
musical play or performance, Cursive's Ugly
Organ is genius. Frontman Tim Kasher continues to
prove his value and worth in a music scene that too often
gets stale and boring.
Cursive is King! |
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