Cusp’s sizable growth between their debut album, 2023’s You Can Do It All, and What I Want Doesn’t Want Me Back coincides with leaving Rochester, New York, for Chicago, Illinois. Once relocated, they expanded their lineup to a quintet—Bender, guitarist Gaelen Bates, bassist Matt Manes, drummer Tommy Moore, and keyboardist Tessa O’Connell—and broadened their sound beyond the early grunge-tinged alt-rock recorded before they moved. Although Cusp are still a proud guitar band in sound and a shoo-in on their new home of Exploding in Sound, they find exponential depth in their instruments by incorporating kittenish synths (“Oh Man”), country pedal steel (“The Upper Hand”), and ample tambourine (“Give Up Your Garden”). They’re particularly adept at braiding vocal harmonies that gussy up their louder inclinations, with Moore and O’Connell lending their voices alongside Bender. Cusp turn into the indie-rock band next door; they aren’t overdressed or looking to impress, and they’re all the more charming because of it.
In under half an hour, Cusp adjust their lens to capture a tiny corner of their world, sharpening their focus on the minutiae and the mundane in equal measure. Whether coming to terms with inactivity stunting life in the midtempo sway of “Extracurricular Hell” or the necessity of pain to contrast joy in the harmony-rich “Give Up Your Garden,” Cusp are refreshingly candid and casual. “This thing is legitimate,” Bender sings repeatedly, gaining steam, during the album’s outro; plug in any interpretation—her band, her family, her life altogether—and it makes sense. Forget the sunglasses-on indifference or fully transparent confessionals. By setting life, and in the process themselves, to scale, Cusp present an indie-rock version of the world that’s oddly reassuring in its scope. It’s the coolest thing about them.
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