SharkTunes - Current Favorite Album: I Am Gemini by Cursive (2012)

in #lifestyle4 years ago (edited)


Currently Spinning: Cursive

My current favorite album seems to be I Am Gemini by Cursive. This is a band I've known about for quite some time and have listened to on and off for the past 20 years or so. I saw them live once in 1996 at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago (opening for the band Mineral) and they were probably one of the worst bands I'd seen at that point in time. Because of this, I never paid much attention to their first couple of albums.

When 2000's Domestica was released, though, it was impossible not to notice Cursive again. That was such an amazingly explosive record, and clearly Cursive must've just had an off night when I saw them live, because they really are a great band. By this point, they'd lost their original guitarist and had enlisted Ted Stevens, a member of another band I really enjoyed in the 1990s called Lullaby For The Working Class. He's been with the band ever since.

Although I Am Gemini came out in 2012, I didn't really listen to it until very recently. As I mentioned before, I have an on/off relationship with listening to Cursive. My interest was piqued when my friend Ron mentioned he'd been really enjoying Cursive's newest album. Surprised to know they were still making albums, I decided to give it a shot. It was great!

Ever since then, I've been making my way through the back catalog of albums. They've made nine albums at this point. If I saw them in 1996, you know they've been around a while.

This House Alive is the opening track on the album.

I Am Gemini is the surreal and powerful musical tale of Cassius and Pollock, twin brothers separated at birth. One good and one evil, their unexpected reunion in a house that is not a home ignites a classic struggle for the soul, played out with a cast of supporting characters that includes a chorus of angels and devils, and twin sisters conjoined at the head.

Recorded in the summer/fall of 2011 at Omaha, NE’s ARC Studios and mixed at Red Room in Seattle, WA with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Minus The Bear, Isis), I Am Gemini marks the first time front man Tim Kasher, holding the completed story already in mind, wrote album lyrics in a linear fashion, in order, from song 1 to song 13. The result is thirteen singularly cohesive song chapters that blend effortlessly into one unique narrative.

The moody and playfully sinister I Am Gemini is Cursive’s musically heaviest in years, with alternately muscular and angular guitars, pounding drums and driving bass. From the eerie introductory sounds of epic barnstormer “This House Alive” and the irresistibly catchy, insistent “The Sun and Moon”, to the searing “Double Dead” and the split personality prog-pop of “Twin Dragon/Hello Skeleton”, to the roaring, mournful closing track “Eulogy for No Name”, the album is a dynamic, mind-bending, and imaginative ride.

Release Date: February 22nd, 2012

TRACK LIST
01. This House Alive
02. Warmer Warmer
03. The Sun and Moon
04. Drunken Birds
05. Lullaby for No Name
06. Double Dead
07. Gemini
08. Twin Dragon / Hello Skeleton
09. Wowowow
10. This House a Lie
11. The Cat and Mouse
12. A Birthday Bash
13. Eulogy for No Name

Album info is all copied from the Saddle Creek website.



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