Rating 4.0
Nothing amazing..This is a good CD. But it is just good.
I don't know what it is about this CD, but I just didn't love it. I wasn't blown away. There are certain parts in the songs that are great but the songs themselves aren't. Instead try buying "Such Blinding Stars For Starving Eyes" or "Cursive's Domestica"Cursive fans you can't over look this gem!!!!Cursive's second album is a great piece of musicianship. Lets over the album. The Rhyme Scheme - Brilliant lyrics! I love the desperacy in Tim's voice on this. Great Opener! 9/10 A Career in Transcendence - 2:18 shortest track and I'm glad it is it just doesn't work and seems to be a filler. 3/10 The Road to Financial Stability - I LOVE THE RIFF! It simple but I love the way it builds in the end when Tim Kasher yells "Don't tell me This is it!" Great song 9/10 Tempest - The vocals by Tim get on my nerves on this one which is a shame cause it started out so good. 4/10 Break In The New Year - Proposals - AWESOME SONG!!! really good, I can't praise it enough. Everything is strong from lyrics to musianship. May just be the best song on here. 10/10 Semantics of Sermon - Great song, love the riff on this one too. The beautiful desperacy in Tim's Voice continues with the great lyrics. 9/10 Little Song and Dance - Wow, this is such an underrated song! Heavy and poinient song, this is my favorite off the album. 10/10 When Summer's over will we dream of spring? - Keeps the great run of songs going and goes deeper into the meaning of this cd. 9/10 Northern Winds - Good song it could be a little better. 6/10 Absence Makes the Day Go Longer - The lyrics could have been a little bit better to end the theme of the album and it could have been a little more climatic. Still its pretty good. I think it gets a little tired at Northern Winds. 6/10 Overall it gives us 6 REALLY strong songs and the album has a great theme it seems like a concept album. I could give my thoughts on what I think its about but that will just tarnish it. This is for you to discover and feel its meaning. It's a great album no cursive fan can go without. Its not as strong as Domestica and Ugly Organ but its still 5 star material. I loved this one, let's just turn to "Proposals"The moment I got this album I thought, "God this is way better than seeing them live!" The reeason, I love the vocals how they are so very raw, but at times... these vocals can be horribly hard to understand live. I liked this album a bit more than Such Blinding Stars because it was a bit more polished.But the reason that I love Cursive so much is because of their lyrical wit. They are amazing, they strike at the bone... these lyrics make me twist up into the sheets of my bed. "Proposals" is my favorite track, I am not sure why... the others compete just as much, but the first time I heard Proposals I was in love... And I know this really isn't something that should be considered... but I am an art major and I do a lot of graphic arts... so I will just have to say that I love the layout of their lyrics book, the way the cover looks, the picture they chose to put on their cd all of it... I am not sure if you will like this, and when I first heard it I wasn't sure if I did. It took me until "Proposals" to fall in love with this album, and then I started the whole thing over again and took thier mastery into consideration, too. | 
