by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Chicago’s Cusp are a great band that writes great songs. Simple enough, and yet there’s much more to it beyond the surface level. Sure their music sounds great, but there’s a depth to it as well, a vulnerability. Jen Bender and co. are making fuzzy indie rock exciting again with personal tunes that are dynamic and peppered with attention to detail. Hooks are pulled from unlikely places, there’s an understanding of texture that build’s up their songs rather than drown them. Last year saw the release of You Can Do It All, their first full length, an album that introduced their music to a wider audience, the songs equal parts muscular and gorgeous, heartfelt but heavy. Everything about it was tight and well-crafted, Bender’s memorable songwriting serving as the spark that really brings Cusp to life. That spark grows ever brighter on Thanks So Much, the band’s upcoming EP, due out March 15th, a triumphantly defining moment for the band.
They’ve never sounded better than they do throughout Thanks So Much, a collection of brilliant alternative rock gems, dense yet sweet, distorted with gorgeous harmonies and twin guitars. Bender’s songs balance emotion with sonic density, pushing and pulling at the shape to create something that’s instantly engaging, built on slight nuances and enormous earworms. “Window,” the EP’s centerpiece is a prime example, a song that’s wistful one moment and sludgy the next. With warbling keys that create a disorienting touch, Cusp quickly come out swinging, the sound akin to brash pop, flipping between a series of impressive hooks at a rapid pace. Over gentle shifts and spikes in harmony and the amorphous melody of Bender’s gorgeous vocals, the song seems to be a reminder not to compare yourself to others, a practice often easier said than done. The lows of such comparisons are given weight as Bender sings “cut straight from a magazine, pasted to cardboard, and dragged through the dirt, straight down to the core of the Earth”. Structurally, the song proves that the best path forward isn’t always the most direct. With a stunning bridge courtesy of atmospheric piano, soft percussion, and flittering echoes, Cusp lull toward a false ending before digging back in, heavier and slower, shimmering all the while.