The Good Life

No longer the baby brother to Tim Kasher's Cursive, the Good Life has shaken off the side-project mantel and become a dependable force in its own right. Where Cursive has long been Kasher's outlet for pummeling aggro-art rock, the Good Life continues to release introspective, genre-shifting records every few years. 2002's Black Outwas a revelation, a series of bar-room laments laid on a bed of glitchy, melodic electro-pop. 2004's Album of the Year took the concept a step further by ditching the sampler and cataloging a couple's doomed relationships through a calendar year. The just-released Help Wanted Nights bears a less obvious narrative arc, though Kasher conveys the themes of drunkenness, doubt and desperation with a more acoustic, folk-inflected style.