ok, so, i'm only a few songs in, but record number one by cursive is pretty generic 90s emo, complete with autistic vocal tone. why did they all do this in this period? anyways....it doesn't seem as though there's much worth mentioning here, and i'm not even sure i'm going to make it all the way through before i skip to the next one.

i was going to skip after track 5, but track six got interesting. briefly. then, boring again for track 7...

aaaand, cut.

when did they get a cello player? well, we'll find out.

https://cursive.bandcamp.com/album/such-blinding-stars-for-starving-eyes-remastered

actually, no. let's do this. i used to do this, years ago, and it will be posted here in time - let's survey cursive, from the start to the end, and put it in context...

and, let's survey mewithoutyou after, too.

when i did this for thursday, after being surprised by the turn they took on what i think ended up being their last record, i concluded that they really did suck all along. when i did it for the trail of the dead, i decided they were actually getting better, but hadn't yet released a substantive record yet. then, i didn't pay attention, after all. that was like 2011 or 2012.

i'll be clear with my views on cursive before i start: i think they're alright, but just alright. but, i think they could be great. i'd give them a string of C+s, kind of thing - i may pull out a B, in the end. as i haven't heard that potentially awesome record, i never got into them, i've just been passively listening a few times and moving away for years. it's time to backtrack and put it in context.

so, we'll start with the first record and move forwards on it.

so, my general perception of cursive hasn't changed: i could imagine them releasing a string of really strong records at some point, but the rather substantive potential that they're hinting at never gets realized. there's a bunch of bands like this from the same period - thursday, ..trail of dead, the dear hunter, muse, etc - that just don't seem able or interested in getting past this level of abstraction, or conversely of just resorting to a more primitive rock sound. so, you get this kind of not-really-art rock pasted into this not-really-punk rock song structure, leaving something that isn't even pretentious, really. i mean, i'd actually probably like it a little bit better if it was actually trying to be pretentious.

a better term than pretentious is pedestrian, in the sense that it neither really rocks very hard nor gets very artsy. it's more like mildly abstract pop rock. by straddling things i like without really committing, i'm just left unsatisfied with it. it's just lacking, all around.

as mentioned, i've listened to a lot of their work, but i don't know the ins and outs of their discography well enough to compare this to their other records. it strikes me as stasis - it's not good enough to pull me in, but not bad enough to get me to go away and leave them alone, either. so, i guess i'll have to wait until the next one to see if they've clicked, yet.

i need to start getting out of the house a little bit more; if i was feeling better, i may have gone, anyways.

and, i need to listen to mewithoutyou now, which were also on the bill, and are in roughly the same category.

https://cursive.bandcamp.com/album/vitriola

"good music....what's good music?

good music is good, and you know it's good music when you hear that it's good."

i like all kinds of music, as long as it's good.

conversely, i'll trash anything at all, if i'm sure that it sucks.

i kind of like this, actually - although if it were any poppier at all, i'd find myself tuning out. if i'm going to listen to this kind of pop, the production and horizontal detail in the layering is really key, and this is a good ways in the right direction.

https://silverpools.bandcamp.com/album/memoirs-of-an-oblong-sphere-2

aimless, perhaps, but kind of intense, too.

https://notthewindnottheflag.bandcamp.com/album/the-starmaker