also from Saddle Creek :

The Good Life’s fourth and finest full length, Help Wanted Nights CD/LP, will be released on September 11. A 7″/Digital single for “Heartbroke” will precede that on August 21. The single includes one track that is not on the album.

The Good Life - Help Wanted Nights CD/LP There’s something to be said for throwing down all the money you’ve won and laying all your cards on the table, face up. It’s a gutsy move that takes a bit of courage, a bit of crazy, a bit of worry and a staunch belief that the outcome will be well worth the risk. Musically, The Good Life lives in a moment of that complexity. Led by Cursive’s Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), the band–featuring Roger Lewis (drums), Ryan Fox (guitar, keys) and Stefanie Drootin (bass)–creates bold songs that are not afraid of the mixed up emotions they describe, sometimes in vicious, heart-battering detail. The characters that inhabit The Good Life songs live on the precipices of courageous, crazy, worrisome and determined, throwing down the hand they’re playing in each relationship they’re trying to save or hoping to begin.

Recorded to tape by A.J. Mogis in Omaha, NE, the songs on the band’s fourth LP Help Wanted Nights were written to take place in the same small-town bar, and were initially meant as the soundtrack to a Kasher-penned screenplay. Unlike 2004 LP Album of the Year’s start-to-finish narratives, these songs describe moments of raw emotion more than chronicle a linear tale. When it came time to prepare the tunes for the studio, The Good Life kept songs close to their original incarnations, spending long sessions on open, uncluttered arrangements. Achingly beautiful and sharply astute, Help Wanted Nights details human nature in the most honest way possible, taking risks without regret.

Written by: B. Disco on August 4th, 2007 | Filed under Features, Music News