Who are you really after? Who are you trying to find?

I've heard a few people accuse Help Wanted Nights of sounding like it should be a Coldplay album. Those people probably don't have the same emotional investment in The Good Life that I do. Tim Kasher is so much better singing sad sad songs in The Good Life than angry ones in Cursive. Which isn't to say that I don't like Cursive. I just relate to this particular album a lot right now.

Anyways, the album. It has a lot more back country Americana than the previous few, which focused almost entirely on relationships and were very deeply sad. It is hopeful and optimistic while preserving memories of total, earth-shattering pain. Every song captures a random in-flux moment in which every whirring, whizzing object or action just stands still and the world is critically examined. All of these moments feel like they is on the cusp of something huge and beautiful, without real closure about what its leaving behind. That fragility is what makes the whole album so beautiful. Memories lingers so lightly, so barely that they are almost not even there. I like the idea of frozen, in-limbo moments that play themselves over and over again, because repeating those moments does not resolve them at all, which is what the album is about, and which, I think, life is all about.

The Good Life: So Let Go
The Good Life: Playing Dumb
The Good Life: Rest Your Head


Buy the album here for bonus free stuff.