Cursive - 'Burst & Bloom' (Saddle Creek)
4/5
By: Toby L
And, finally - an official UK release for Cursive's wondrous 'Burst & Bloom' EP: a five-track explosion of the very ideals of post-hardcore and melodious, well-orchestrated, dynamic, restless, determined invention.
Cue cynical record-industry observations in the opening 'Sink To The Beat' (that this release was merely 'a cheap strategy, a marketing-scheme building awareness for the next LP'...) and the thudder of 'The Great Decay' - which bears a startling resemblance to UK strange-oids Mansun's 'Everyone Must Win' - with its creeping, lurking guitars and sighing screeches nestling amongst lowly exerted cello to blissful intrigue. And it's a marvellous opening. Bettered only by the prospect of more such genius - Fugazi uneasiness, free-styling time-signatures ('Tall Tales, Telltales') and the same overwhelming sense of self-confidence that allows comparable friends in sound Trail Of Dead to remain so breath-taking over the years.
Notoriously, music like this ain't easy-going. Cursive's product similarly isn't - but it's nonetheless rewarding once broken into, at which juncture, it may well become a part of you.
Artists in this article: Cursive
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