Nebraska's saddle creek may favour a strict door policy that permits entry only to those introspective souls with a rusty knife in the heart and a precociousness worthy only of other worlds, but such stringent limits are a wonderful affirmation of quality control. like label mates bright eyes, desaparecidos and the good life (with whom singer tim kasher splits his time) cursive have constructed an album riddled with harrowing sub currents that taunt and jar like duelling flick-knifes. disjointed throughout, rhythms find themselves fractured beyond repair with severed melodies merely clearing space for kasher's traumatic flow of unhinged narrative. unforgiving yet breathtaking to the end, "the ugly organ" could never be anything other than a saddle creek release.(