All right, people — time to let out that breath you’ve been holding since Cursive’s last album, 2003’s The Ugly Organ. The band’s seventh CD, Happy Hollow, is finally here. The new album keeps with the Omaha band’s characteristic bitterness, but adds a new flavor. Gone are the cello melodies of old albums, replaced by a new kind of staccato beat you can throw a fist in the air to. Happy Hollows’ two-track chronicles of a girl named Dorothy are fantastic, if a little bleak. On “Dorothy at Forty,” lead singer Tim Kasher growls, “We’re not the kids we once were / we can’t be the adults we want to be.” As fulfilling as the rants against the American Dream and creationism are, Kasher’s voice doesn’t have the same rage we loved on previous albums and the cello is sorely missed. Grade: B
— Michelle Forelle, Muse Staff