For better or worse, Tim Kasher has always elicited a reaction. The front man of both emo progenitors Cursive and catch-all side project The Good Life, Kasher’s pained screams and self-absorbed vocals have garnered him a rabid cult following and an avid group of detractors. It’s somewhat strange, then, that on The Good Life’s new album, Help Wanted Nights, there’s nothing to love or hate and a lot that’s way too easy to forget.

The most obvious reason for Help Wanted Nights’ blandness is its scaled-back presentation. Where previous Good Life releases dressed up Kasher’s tales of woe with horns, keyboards, auxiliary percussion and strings, Nights mainly occupies singer-songwriter territory. This forces Kasher’s voice to take over the album, but he sounds oddly disinterested throughout, a far cry from the impassioned wails he’s made his calling card.

Conceived as a concept album detailing the stories of several patrons of a bar, Help Wanted Nights should have at least been able to capitalize on Kasher’s strong narrative skills, but even here it falters. Though he’s supposed to inhabit a number of different characters, Kasher’s stories almost entirely stick to the themes of infidelity and loss that he’s explored more successfully elsewhere.

Even though there isn’t a real dud among Night’s 10 tracks, the whole thing is cripplingly unremarkable. In the past, Kasher inspired either adoration or ridicule. With Help Wanted Nights all he’s likely to get is ambivalence.