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Album Details

• Artist: Cursive
• Album: The Ugly Organ
• Label: Saddle Creek
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-09-08

Media

Call me curious but I just had to see what Tim Kasher's Cursive was all about. Sure, I got caught up in Saddle Creeks own Bright Eyes but I hadn't tried out anything by Cursive. I wandered down to my local music store and sure enough, they had a copy of The Ugly Organ in stock. I was happy. The Ugly Organ is basically a concept album about the confusion surrounding relationships. Now, if you ask me, that is the fuel for pretty much any singer/songwriter. As soon as a heart gets broken the songs start pouring out. Tim and company do this quite well, regardless of the song material. Cursive's take on relationships is bordering on an emo-style punk and take a bit of the Jawbox/Fugazi sound and implement it for street credibility. So what this adds up to is some music that is powerful enough for the DC area scene as well as interesting enough for the emo fans. Guitars can grate heavily like on "Some Red Handed Sleight Of Hand" or ring nicely as in "The Recluse", a gentle and breathy track showing the soft side of Kasher. This brings me to thinking of Modest Mouse. The big difference with Cursive is that Tim's voice is an actual sung voice. This is indeed an album for more than just Cursive fans. It needs to reach out into households and change their taste in music. I predict that The Ugly Organ will be the album to beat for Cursive and many other followers out there. It's an intense album, but it's the best 40 minutes of music that you could be listening to right now.

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