There are worse bands to rip off than Cursive. To that end, Stegosaur’s new Adventure seven-inch gets points for drawing heavily from The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song. To describe the band in terms of Cursive’s discography, they haven’t yet opened up their instrumentation to the highs of Domestica or The Ugly Organ.
Opener “Headache” is pretty straightforward – Saddle Creek-indebted punk with quavering vocals. “Big Breath” shakes the formula by skewing towards mellow indie pop. It’s really catchy, mildly twee.
The flipside’s lone track, “Bloooooood,” (Yes, there are seven Os. Yes, I counted) is less successful. It’s long, mid-tempo, and not particularly dynamic. Oh sure, there are handclaps and organ and gang vox, yet somehow none of that really matters. The song is boring, but at least it’s kept a safe distance away from “Headache” and “Big Breath.”
Adventure presents two possible paths for Stegosaur. Side A is fun and good and not terrible. Side B is the overwrought opposite of that. If the band can avoid indulging moody yet uninteresting pieces like “Bloooooood,” then its full-length might be killer. Hell, they could be the new Cursive.
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