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There is of course a huge market for their kind of angst-ridden emo, and in many ways--particularly lyrically--this album sounds like it's been lifted straight from the emo handbook, which may well satisfy many listeners. For the less committed, however, the lack of the band's usual wit and musical inventiveness will be missed.
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Tim Kasher is emo's grown-up hero--a punk who pays his mortgage. So it's a little awkward to find the Omaha native stricken with Peter Pan syndrome on Cursive's sixth album, Mama, I'm Swollen.
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Cursive haven't sounded this crazed and inspired since their breakthrough album, 2003's "The Ugly Organ."
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Kasher still embraces his flaws and while that may not work to the record's advantage when it does Cursive hits hard as ever.
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It’s definitely an improvement over "Happy Hollow," but the band has yet to reclaim the impulse that attracted so many of their fans in the first place.
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For a band like Cursive to produce an album as self-pitying and mournful as Swollen is, frankly, a disappointment, especially considering the fact that the Omaha quartet tackled twenty-something melodrama with such delightful insolence on "Ugly Organ."
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Its high points undeniably high, the end result is nevertheless another mild disappointment from a songwriter who would do well to cut his songs loose a bit and let them stand on their own.
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Kasher has zero ability to or interest in dialing down his drama and giving Cursive’s highbrow emo rock room to breathe.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 15 out of 17
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Mixed: 0 out of 17
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Negative: 2 out of 17
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Jun 26, 2019idk porque las personas no le dan tan buena puntuacion.... esta bien trabajado esto
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JesseTMar 17, 2009I am a long time fan of Cursive and I think this album is excellent.
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beausMar 14, 2009