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It's been too many years since we last saw a release from
Curve. Toni Halliday always had a way to make you melt, even
through the noise Dean Garcia and company built. There was
always that deep bass melody and distorted guitar to add to
her lyrics of lust and love. It made all us jaded folks actually
think about love for once.
Well, the wait was definitely worth it. Even though it's been
roughly five years, Come Clean is a logical follow up to Cuckoo.
Sure there's been minor changes and improvements, but the
general principle is the same. This time around, Curve have
more of an edge, and this record is louder than anything they've
done before, and they were no quiet ensemble. The guitars
are noisier than before, while still not masking the melodies.
"Something Familiar" is just that, a tale about
the fine line of lust and love that sounds as if is could
have been a Cuckoo outtake. "Sweetback" starts with
a techno influenced intro and Halliday's effected whisper,
then it breaks into a full volume white noisefest spurned
on by a techno beat with the refrain "Then I'll be happy
in love." Halliday's voice pleads for mercy during "Forgotten
Sanity," telling how a lost love has wrecked her, she's
forgotten how to do just about anything. Halliday's voice
is as strong and seductively mature as ever, while her lyrics
keep the same love/hate relationship with love. Garcia's instrumental
work and programming show he's been dabbling in the studio
during the hiatus extending the Curve sound.
A few songs do take the premise that Curve relies on and expands
them to new grounds. The opening cut "Chinese Burn"
shows how the techno influence has influenced Garcia's programming.
It's a perfect mesh of Curve's traditional sound with the
techno influence, it's odd to hear at first, but once familiar
with it, it makes perfect sense. "Come Clean" is
really like a punk/techno tune. Based on a driving drumbeat,
overly effected vocals butt up against the simple melody line
creating a hyper-punk version of Curve. Once again, it may
be different, but it's not a stretch for them to pull this
off.
In an age where everyone wants to overhaul their sound to
fit the recent trends, it's bands like Curve, who just tweak
their ideas instead of tear down and rebuild them, that will
have the staying power to go the distance and carry us jaded
souls clean into the next millennium.
-tom topkoff
Track Listing:
1. Chinese Burn
2. Coming up Roses
3. Something Familiar
4. Dog Bone
5. Alligators Getting Up
6. Dirty High
7. Killer Baby
8. Sweetback
9. Forgotten Sanity
10. Cotton Candy
11. Beyond Reach
12. Come Clean
13. Recovery
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