Cursive - 'Domestica' (Saddle Creek)
3/5
By: Austin Louis Ray
The theme-album has definitely done the rounds. For as long as most can remember, there have been those perennial albums that revolve around a central topic, track-by-track. There's been the good (The Who's 'Tommy'), the bad (Lou Reed's 'The Raven') and, now, the ugly - or more specifically, Cursive's 'Domestica'. Not to say the music falls short - far from it. But the highlighted subject-matter certainly drags the listener through what must've been some unsightly times for Cursive frontman Tim Kasher.
There have been a lot of topics covered in concept records of the past. Whether an LP spends its entirety detailing a time-traveling man, fights with the idea of technology taking over the world, or simply bases itself off another artistic work, nigh-on every topic has been turned inside out in the sake of musical-examination... But divorce? That's a new one.
From the outset, it should be obvious that 'Domestica' is covering this lost love territory. From the title, to the melancholy pictures of a couple that adorn the cover and liner notes, to song-titles such as 'The Game of Who Needs Who the Worst', it's clear where the inspiration of the album derives... Don't run away in terror just yet though; Cursive do manage to bring the rock on a few tracks.
Setting a precedent as the first song on the work, 'The Casualty' boasts a gruelingly heavy, opening riff. Kasher's voice directly contradicts the opening, however, as it enters and utters, almost sheepishly, lines inclusive of, 'The night has fallen down the staircase/ And I, for one, have felt its bruises'. Presumably, this guitar/vocal contradiction is intentional, but it's often Kasher's voice that holds back the band's finest moments. But, as the chorus hits and screams, detailing exploding lungs and thrown phones abound, Kasher's vox more than makes amends.
Elsewhere on 'Domestica' though, Cursive's attack is less than impacting; on 'Shallow Means, Deep Ends', for instance, things change stylistically, the guitars opting for a groove-based panache. And, lyrically, Kasher uses water-sports as a metaphor for the thematic relationship getting worse. 'Swimming at night/We've finally hit bottom/ Swallowing promises back into our lungs'. Worryingly, combining the newly introduced musical reversal with lyrics such as these, comparatively, just doesn't work for the band.
Reverting to where the band's talent lays, 'The Lament of Pretty Baby' serves as the album's most engrossing, assaulting moment. Hitting once again (see 'The Casualty') with a beastly riff, 'Lament' augments the part with eerie harmonics that fit in perfectly with the track's sentiment - painful times for pretty things.
And if this talk of 'pretty baby' getting hurt makes you a little anxious, that things are getting a little too personal, you'd be right. Wasting no time, the aforementioned 'The Game...' follows, complete with a few couplets that are enough to make most self-respecting listeners cringe: 'What did that prick whisper to you/Was it playful & flirty/ Or degrading and dirty/ I know you like it both ways'.
Fortunately, salvaging the band once again from sheer indulgence is the following track, 'The Radiator Hums'. Sporting what could be the greatest hook on the album, the guitars stay a little more lighthearted, whilst the libretto is far more close to home and not going anywhere too far away at this point.
When 'Domestica' ends, listeners may feel as if they themselves have been dragged unwillingly through the throes of a relationship gone horribly awry. Whether this translates to cathartic or simply depressing depends merely on each disc-spinner. As far as the songs are concerned though, it could be argued that the theme of the album wasn't divorce, so much as inconsistency. Not that breaking up this tragic was ever easy.
Artists in this article: Cursive
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