I suspect there are many other people who feel this way, but I can never quite decide which is my favourite Cursive album. Some days it's The Ugly Organ and other days it's this LP, Domestica. Their back-catalogue is pretty solid and each record has its merits, but those two are, for me, the finest examples of Cursive's music (along with Burst and Bloom, but that's an EP so it's fine to ignore it for this discussion). The best thing is that neither sounds very much like the other; The Ugly Organ is pretty much defined by that cello and an overwhelming hatred of the music industry but Cursive's Domestica (to give it its full name) is a brutal break-up album that you could possibly call post-hardcore, but defies any obvious genre.
I first heard Domestica in 2006 when I bought a relatively cheap Japanese version on eBay (along with obi-strip and all those other fun things that come with Japanese cds). I'd been introduced to them by Hugh in the form of A Gentleman Caller on a mixtape in 2004 and earlier that summer bought the b-sides and EPs collection The Difference Between Houses and Homes (again, cheaply on eBay). Domestica was an instant hit and I knew I listening to an album that would become one of my favourites. At just nine songs, there's no filler and pretty much every song is worthy of a mention. I wouldn't be able to pick a favourite, but The Martyr, A Red so Deep and The Lament of Pretty Baby would all be contenders.
I'd long thought it would be nice to have Domestica on vinyl and, seven years after buying the cd, I found the vinyl in Hear Again Music in Gainesville. The Monday after Fest this year we were flying home, so decided to hit up the two record stores in Gainesville for as much vinyl as we could carry before leaving. This is probably a sweeping generalisation, but record stores in America tend to have so much more stock than the ones over here, especially older records. I guess it's easier to get records by American bands and I suspect rent is cheaper so they have more space to stock them all too. Either way, I love buying vinyl in the US. At £14 it was one of the more expensive records I bought that week but still a bargain compared to the average price of an LP in the UK. It's on a lovely, thick red vinyl and worth every penny. I'm very glad to have this one in my collection.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £14 new
Bought: Hear Again Music, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Clear red
Etching: none
mp3s: Download
