Their records have had many homes in the more than fifteen years that Cheer-Accident have been releasing music, but it seems as though, with Cuneiform, the band has finally found a great fit. Chicago neighbors Skin Graft, with whom the band worked on a trio of albums from 2000-2003, seemed, by all accounts a beneficial match, but given the band's aesthetic, the venerable Cuneiform has the potential to raise Cheer-Accident's profile with prog fans all over the world. Fans of some of the labels more rigorously technical groups might be disappointed, though, as Cheer-Accident don't fit the prog mold (or any mold, for that matter) very well; they're just as likely to break into a gentle pop melody as they are off-kilter rhythms. Theirs is a confounding formula that's unpredictable enough to fluster all but the most patient of listeners, combining a broad songwriting palette with a taste for experiments, humor, games, and anything else that might catch their compositional fancy.
Fear Draws Misfortune, despite (or maybe because of) its appearance on Cuneiform, features a more even-tempered Cheer-Accident. The album's not the all out pop of The Why Album, but its twists and turns tend to take forms that shouldn't fluster the seasoned Cuneiform listener too seriously. The proggiest of the disc's selections, "The Carnal, Garish City" moves quickly (and not altogether linearly, of course) through several sections, none of which are particularly easy to digest, ending with vocals that quack as much as sing the song to its denouement. Thymme Jones, the group's ringleader, principal songwriter, and drummer, lends his sonorous voice to much of the album, though additional vocalists are plentiful, often in the form of a unison choir of sorts, something a bit heavenly above what can be a choppy, churning musical terrain below. Anyone who's seen the band live recently knows that that membership in Cheer-Accident these days seems a bit fluid, and, on Fear Draws Misfortune, it shows: the core line-up of Jones, guitarist Jeff Libersher, and bassist Alex Perkolup is frequently augmented by any number of contributors, such as violinist Julie Pomerau, trombonist Mike Hagedorn, and Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello. At times, Jones performs alone, or with minimal accompaniment; on other tracks, the band reaches sizes as large as eight. All this variance is just another sign, perhaps, of how anything goes in the Cheer-Accident world.
For all the group's open-minded penchant for peculiarity, however, this latest effort is performed largely with a straight face. The disc may not reflect the darkness suggested by its title (some goofiness still pops up here and there), but the majority of Fear Draws Misfortune is simply and solidly executed. Whether brimming with capricious energy or unclouded, insistent emotion (or, most likely, more than a bit of both), Cheer-Accident perform with aplomb. "Your Weak Heart," which closes the album, encapsulates this beautifully, moving from a plaintive solo performance by Jones into an increasingly tense crescendo that finally bursts into a vintage prog jam, and back again to Jones, singing along to only his piano. It's a great blend of some of the disc's most earnest pathos with some of its most agile rock, and a great way to close what is hopefully the beginning of a bountiful new pairing of a band and a record label.
