People mellow with age, and for rock performers that’s usually a bad thing. But on his solo debut Cursive front man Tim Kasher bucks any notion of being a complacent bore.
The most noticeable sonic difference between The Game of Monogamy and any given Cursive release comes in terms of musically being easily accessible. This album has more of a pop flair than Kasher’s past songwriting and is relies less heavily on dissonant wailings. Even “I’m Afraid I’m Gonna Die Here,” a song about the hopelessness of day-to-day routine and perceived failure, is musically upbeat and clap-happy.
Lyrically, Kasher is as emotive and brutally blunt, as always. The theme of the album (somewhat obvious by its title) is the trappings of monogamy. “Cold Love” deals with caving to the suburban doldrums to have some uninspired sex. “There Must Be Something I’ve Lost” is about being unable to let go of the types of memories that hide in high school yearbooks, with sharp-tongued lyrics like, “When I was young I believed in love. But hey, I also believed in God.”
Even in the striped simplicity of a love song like “Strays” the bitterness can’t help but show its ugly face. The song is about keeping a relationship going by band-aiding problems by caring for stray dogs, but Kasher can’t help but turn angrily inward with a lines like, “Writers are selfish, writers are egotists. I’m afraid I’m as bad as it gets. I keep forgetting to censor the truth. That’s why I better write some kind of love song for you. While its hardly uplifting, the images Kasher lays make up intricate portraits of coupling accentuated by the quiet details hidden from plain view.
The Game of Monogamy may be a series of portraits of wedded woe, but it’s blissful for the ears.
Review Score: 7.7
*Expanded from a review in The Pacific Northwest Inlander*
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