Help Wanted Nights

Tim Kasher's fifth record, and third for Saddle Creek, under the Good Life moniker finds the Cursive frontman delivering a set of Midwestern slice-of-life numbers that are as understated and alluring as Cursive's are intense. Kasher plays his cards a little closer to the chest than labelmate Conor Oberst, and in some ways HELP WANTED NIGHTS acts as a foil to Oberst's epic, CASSADAGA. While the latter heaps instrument upon instrument and has the sum-total effect of trying to redefine Americana, HELP WANTED NIGHTS's spacious and economical arrangements and hushed tones are trying to define only that spot on which Kasher finds himself standing--probably somewhere in Nebraska.