Tim Kasher‘s long-running emo/post-hardcore outfit Cursive have announced Vitriola, their first new album in six years, with biting first single “Life Savings.” The new record finds Kasher, guitarist Ted Stevens, and bassist Matt Maginn reunited with founding drummer Clint Schnase, alongside keyboardist Patrick Newbery and cellist Megan Siebe, the band tell NPR in a new interview. Vitriola (think “vitriol” and “Victrola”) tackles explicitly political themes, applying Kasher’s incisive cynicism to Trump-era anxiety and moral disquiet. Here’s what Kasher told NPR about it:
“I do feel like the nihilism that lives within me really reared its head on this record. That’s something that, yes, I do attempt to keep at bay, because I prefer to be more positive and open-minded. And this time around I feel like I failed that—maybe I shouldn’t say failed, but I allowed more of that nihilistic belief to seep into the music, which is very upsetting for me. I’m not really doing my part to buoy humanity when I’m just sitting so hard on it, you know? But these are our feelings and that’s the catharsis I ended up choosing. I also hope listeners will experience that as well.”
The ironically titled “Life Savings” certainly fits the bill, raging against a faceless economic system that values currency above all else. “Head down, anonymous / The more you comply is the more you subsist,” Kasher sings. “There’s no scruples / Only money.” A box of keepsakes beneath a sink suggests society once offered alternatives, but the song’s hollow, distorted coda doesn’t leave a lot of space for hope.
Cursive’s most recent album, I Am Gemini, arrived in 2012. Tim Kasher has since released two solo records, Adult Film and No Resolution, as well as an album with his other band the Good Life. Vitriola is out October 5 from Cursive’s own label 15 Passengers. Listen to “Life Savings” below, and scroll down for album art, track list, and Cursive’s upcoming U.S. tour dates.
