Cursive: Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar, organ); Ted Stevens (guitar, background vocals); Greta Cohn (cello); Matt Magnin (bass); Clint Schnase (drums, percussion).

Recorded at Presto Studios, Lincoln, Nebraska.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Personnel: Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar, organ); Ted Stevens (vocals, guitar); A.J. Mogis, Alex McManus, Robert Hawkins, Sara Wilson, Jenny Lewis, Conor Oberst, Clark Baechle, Todd Fink (vocals); Mike Mogis (guitar, keyboards, vibraphone, bells); Gretta Cohn (cello).

Recording information: Presto!, Lincoln, NE.

The fourth full-length album by Omaha-based indie band Cursive--the second after their 2000 reformation following an extended breakup--THE UGLY ORGAN continues with both the dark lyrical themes and more acoustic sound of its immediate predecessor, DOMESTICA. Where that album was explicitly about Cursive frontman Tim Kasher's apparently emotionally devastating divorce, THE UGLY ORGAN is both more general in its themes and more misanthropic in its attitude. Music business aggravations permeate "Butcher the Song" and "Art Is Hard," while more personal demons haunt "A Gentleman Caller" and "Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand." After the general undercurrent of negativity, however, the 10-minute closing epic, "Staying Alive" (not the Bee Gees favorite, naturally), ends the album on a far more hopeful although still stormy note. On that song, as throughout, Cursive's newest member, cellist Gretta Cohn, is the band's secret weapon, with her lyrical, emotionally resonant melodies providing flashes of sunshine in the album's otherwise pitch-black arrangements.