Cursive’s 1997 debut, Such Blinding Stars for Starving Eyes, was so grossly pregnant with cliches–dramatic stops and starts, romantic travails painted in big tragic strokes–that it took me eight years to give the band another chance. I jumped back in with last year’s The Difference Between Houses and Homes, a collection of singles and unreleased tracks from 1995 to 2001, and while the whole thing was still heavy on the emo, the songs had gotten classier as the years progressed–all it took was the addition of some strings and a little restraint. It sounds like Cursive are making a concerted effort to turn a corner on their newest, Happy Hollow (Saddle Creek), a vague political parable about the suffering of a small town in Wal-Mart America. Front man Tim Kasher has finally stopped singing about his divorce–religion, patriotism, and family are the discernible themes–and with a five-piece horn section stepping in for the violin, the band lays down a rollicking bit of gone-funky that takes big cues from the Dismemberment Plan. –Jessica Hopper
