CD of The Week

Tim Kasher -- songwriter, musician, web weaver, and storyteller of Cursive. Tim Kasher writes these beautifully dramatic vignettes on relationships, the evolution through the inevitable dissolution. I Am Gemini explores the dichotomy of the relationship between polar opposites within the self's internal struggle.

The lead single currently on the Y-Not Radio waves, "The Sun And Moon" introduces you, novice listener and future Cursive fan, to our protagonist's awakening, those dark tendencies looming in the background--waiting. "The Sun and Moon" is a play between the good (The Sun) and the bad (The Moon). This push/pull between extremes is a constant throughout the album. The intensity of which is exhaustively demonstrated on the creepy "Warmer Warmer" and the theatrical "Twin Dragon/Hello Skeleton" and "Wowowow," though the record crests with "Gemini":

"Who has been controlling everything I do and say? They sure as hell have made some foul mistakes - wait - something's shifting in this symmetry.. something's missing in my memory. Somebody's building a monster, it seems, and the parts look a lot like mine."

Though I didn't have high hopes for this record, I Am Gemini is their most dynamic record since 2003's The Ugly Organ. Cursive albums are visceral storms wrought with the thunder, lightning, and an eerie calm. This is no different, with Kasher exploring the relationship within, the Jekyll & Hyde-like duality that exists within us all.