The Good Life
Everybody’s Coming Down
SADDLE CREEK
4/10
Cursive frontman Tim Kasher promises listeners a lot by naming his solo side project The Good Life. Unfortunately, Everybody’s Coming Down—The Good Life’s fifth full-length—can’t stand up to the expectations of Cursive fans searching for another emo ride or looking to escape to an enjoyable sonic dream world. While Coming Down still has the lingering aftertaste of emo, the anthemic shouts and shrill vocals featured on the record are more closely associated with power-pop and ’90s alt-rock groups that the music industry might like to forget. Unnecessary and annoying vocal outbursts in tracks like “Holy Shit,” “Ad Nausea,” and “Everybody” become more questionable with every repetition and even cross the line into cringe-worthy territory. Kasher is inspired when he takes experimental leaps with his sound like on the dark, fuzzed-out “Flotsam Locked into a Groove” and the dreamy “Diving Bell.” But these innovations and beams of intricacy can’t make up for the bland sound that Everybody’s Coming Down tries to stand on.
