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The Good Life Help Wanted Nights Rating: 3.5/5 Tracks to download: “On the Picket Fence,” “Heartbroke,” “Some Tragedy,” “Keely Aimee” For fans of: Bright Eyes, Cursive, The Cure, Spoon |
On first listen, “Help Wanted Nights” was a colossal disappointment. Written to be the soundtrack for a script of the same name (which lead singer/songwriter, Tim Kasher, also penned), I definitely had my doubts.
Kasher, who also leads the band Cursive, has said on multiple occasions that “Help Wanted Nights” was different from his previous albums with both the Good Life and Cursive. The Good Life’s “Black Out” and “Album of the Year,” as well as Cursive’s “Domestica,” “The Ugly Organ” and “Happy Hollow” each tell a story, whereas “Help Wanted Nights” takes climactic moments from a story and expands on them individually in great detail. While this approach is truly compelling, it leads to an empty, incomplete feeling foreign to any of Kasher’s previous albums.
“Help Wanted Nights” continues stylistically where “Album of the Year” left off. It is slow and folksy with even less of the famed high-pitched Kasher yelp than “Album of the Year” had. Overall, however, the songs don’t have the same urgency and passion that could be felt previously.
The record starts with “On the Picket Fence,” a slow, pretty little ditty detailing the ups and downs of a relationship and the narrator’s ultimatum for his partner. Kasher sings, “Either you love me or you leave me / Don’t you leave me on this picket fence” in a depressingly drunk manner that is enough to crush one’s very soul.
The song finishes in a similar way, with the narrator owning his desperation; no longer asking not to be left on “this picket fence,” but instead asking not to be left at all.
Just shy of two minutes long, the album’s first single, “Heartbroke,” is one of the best songs on the album. A bouncy guitar riff drives the first half of the song as Kasher sings sullenly. The song picks up for the second half as a more discordant, twangy riff takes over. Kasher’s voice picks up and trades off with a female vocalist as they sing, “I see you find the way to pass the time / You’d like him, he’s a lot like you / . / It’s never easy, but I’m sure we’ll make it through / Yeah, I’m sure your heart is breaking too.”
Other highlights on the album include “Keely Aimee” and its beach-rock feel, the prototypically fantastic Tim Kasher chorus found in “Some Tragedy,” and the climactic chorus of “Rest Your Head.” While not their best, The Good Life’s new record is an interesting departure for the prototypical story-album model heard in almost the entirety of Tim Kasher’s previous career.
At its best, “Help Wanted Nights” is a nice progression stylistically from “Album of the Year.” At its worst, it is a tad boring, but overall, Kasher and his band have formed a solid album. If you’re a fan of The Good Life, Cursive, Bright Eyes or really anything Saddle Creek has done, this is an album worth obtaining through whatever means you desire.
The Good Life will be playing at the Gargoyle on Tuesday, September 25th as part of W.I.L.D. Week. Tickets can be picked up at the Edison Theatre Box Office or at the door and are free for Wash. U. Students.