CURSIVE - The Difference Between Houses And Homes

North American band Cursive gained attention and magazine coverage thanks to their latest works, "Domestica" from 2000 and "The Ugly Organ" from 2003. While waiting for their next album of new material, expected next year, they release this collection of "lost songs" meant to document the band's evolution, from their emo-core beginnings to the compositional maturity reached in recent years. Meant to. In reality, one shouldn't be fooled by the timespan given in the album's title (1995-2001): what's actually contained here are only the band's early EPs, the least personal and weakest material. The sole exception, which allows us to read the aforementioned title as a con rather than an outright lie (which would be worse), is "Nostalgia", a track dated, indeed, 2001, and, unsurprisingly, the best song on the record, even if it lacks personality. In it, essentially, Cursive's (melodic) epic quality merges into the sonic fabric of Sonic Youth.

The opening is handled by derailed guitars before Schnase turns into Shelley and sustains the crisscrossing, the flourishes, the call-and-response of guitars chasing one another that have always been the trademark of Moore and Ranaldo. The tracks that manage to reach the threshold of decency, besides the aforementioned one, can be counted on the fingers of one hand (with room to spare). The two "Disruption" tracks ("...In The Normal Swing Of Things" and "...in Our Lines Of Influence") manage to pique the listener's interest with powerful clattering and quality melodic lines, while "Polar" opens with a long instrumental phrase before collapsing under Kasher's explosive blows and screams.

In reality, the record's stylistic signature is made up of loud, chunky guitars stripped of any real bite, and whiny melodies, all aiming to capture the epic of pimply American teenagers, with a sprinkling of Sonic Youth here and Fugazi there thrown in for cool points. "Dispenser" (one of the two new tracks; the other, the closing "I Thought There'd Be More Than This", is a slow whisper with a crackling guitar in the background and an electronic pulse on top, far from unpleasant, but nothing more than a postscript) and, even more so, "Sucker & Dry" are the fastest, most disposable tracks, fit for a college party — the first for fun and messing around, the second wearing its heart on its sleeve. Genuine manifestos of (less than) mediocrity.

The slow tracks fare even worse: "And The Bit Just Chokes Them", the soporific ballad par excellence, with a chorus screamed out to the whole world (which grieves and repents), is a strong contender for the prestigious title of "the five most useless minutes in the band's history", while "The Knowledge Hasbeens" is in the running for the other highly coveted title of "the three most annoying minutes in the band's history": Kasher's whiny tone (which lacks the thickness and over-the-top parody of a Molko) would make quite a few saints lose their halos. Let's wrap it up here: "The Difference Between Houses And Homes" is a pointless record, whose only real purpose is to cash in, scraping the bottom of the barrel and salvaging songs that deserved to stay right where they were (out of print).

If, despite everything, you're a die-hard Cursive fan and simply can't do without this little gem of "subpar songs", go ahead and run to your trusted record shop anyway and buy it. Everyone's happy: you, them, and everyone else.

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30/04/2026