Capsule Review: The Good Life's Help Wanted Nights

The Good Life Help Wanted Nights (Saddle Creek)

The Good Life’s Tim Kasher, also of Cursive, is one of the most prolific and consistent romantic anti-heroes of modern indie rock. He’s released many albums under both titles as well as contributing to his peers’ projects like Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes (the singer of which got his start playing with Kasher in Commander Venus), and while much of his music is built on heart aching chords and evoking melodies wrapped in occasional discordant dirtiness and impassioned shrieks, he alters each album just a bit to stave away the staleness. He brought in turbulent cello on one, vibrant horn blasts on another, centered one on the concept of a rocky relationship chronicled so each track represents a month, and this one was originally meant to be the soundtrack to a screenplay Kasher wrote detailing the sordid stories of a small town bar.

The Good Life dispenses love songs for those who are sick to death of love songs. No bubbly, idealized visions of romantic liaisons here. Kasher throws back the shades to let the ugly light of realism in on an often romanticized concept revealing that we’re all confused, love is painful, sometimes cruelty is inescapable and happy endings are hard to come by. But, Kasher and crew make it clear that there’s a certain beauty and unity to it. Don’t ever lose the agony of living because it’s what we all have in common.

The characters within the tracks on the last Good Life album, Album of the Year, stuck to a very linear storyline, while Help Wanted Nights is more topical and about a general feeling. However both, like most of Kasher’s lyric-writing have the uncanny ability of being easily translatable into issues the listener has dealt with in his or her own life. “You fooled me into thinking I was special/But you’re a liar and a whore/It makes me want you just a little bit more” from “A Little Bit More” is one of those lines that reeks of familiarity. Hopeless desperation accompanies the sweetest acoustic chords and a prominent bass line on this track. “Heartbroke” is so heavy with catchy bass riffs that it was no doubt foresight that caused the group to limit burnout and keep the track under two minutes. At first, it’s more of a lighthearted, foot-tapping theme song. But a minute in, a siren of a chord is hit and the bitter sarcasm is revealed, “I can’t imagine how hard it’s been/On second thought you don’t seem to give a shit/You claim you’re in pain but where’s the bruise/Yeah, I’m sure your heart is breaking too.” He must have had some pretty scary and incredible relationships to have this much romantic fodder for song.

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