Tim Kasher
Adult Film
Saddle Creek
7/10
I used to love listening to Tim Kasher’s music, including his full bands Cursive and the Good Life. Then I stopped being afraid of growing up. I get the appeal: the fear of fucking up adulthood, including marriage, abandonment, a career, settling down, even white picket fences; all set to poppy instrumentals and Kasher’s angst-tinged vocals. Growing up in a world of divorcees and a dad who still hasn’t gotten over being in a hair metal band (NOT joking), I know what it’s like to have no one there to show you how to get it right. And that’s how Kasher’s lyrics spoke to me, they said “I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t want to fuck it all up. Please don’t let me fuck it all up.” But now, with a solid job doing what I love, and a burgeoning family that includes a fiancée and multiple four-legged kids, I am desperate to see what the future holds instead of being desperate to avoid growing up.
NOW, that said: the album’s OK. A lot of it is more of the same themes found in everything else he does, but a bit more minimal. I mean, for Kasher, a bit more minimal means no orchestra, but there’s still more than enough atmospheric tones and ethereal reverb to get the feelings across. “Where’s Your Heart Lie” is kind of the epitome of Kasher for me: a beautiful piano melody behind him being simultaneously terrified of and bored in monogamy. Dude, we all freak out, I hope you can get over the terror of the unknown.
-Jonathan Yost