FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The Cover: Reminds me of the Doppelgänger album cover, with its montage of thematically-related junk. And the italicised "Curve" logo also feels a bit nostalgic, too. For an album entitled "The New Adventures of Curve", these resonances with the past provide an interesting contrast.

The Disc: Interestingly, the CD looks very much like those two-sided DVD releases, with the printing only along the inside ring of the disc. Every so often I have to double-check to make sure I'm putting the CD in the right way up!

THE MUSIC

Answers: Not what I was expecting at all. No guitars at all on this one, which surprised me -- the focus is completely on the keyboards and programmed stuff, with the vocals consisting primarily of two lines repeated over and over! Nevertheless, it works really well, serving as a very good and memorable (if unexpected) opener, advising the listener to leave at least some of their expectations at the door. My only disappointment? The track fades out instead of ending properly. (Although, the song does fade in at the beginning, so having a fade-out at the end makes sense if you look at it as being symmetrical...)

Till the Cows Come Home: This is probably more along the lines of what fans would expect to hear from Curve, a good track full of programmed drummy analogy things, crunchy punky guitars and Toni's voice evoking a wide range of emotions. My favorite moments of this track would have to be the closing minute or so, where Toni's "don't go letting me down" phrase is given some electronic treatment -- the result is somehow both robotic and angelic at the same time. Ahhhhh... One of my favorite tracks so far.

Every Good Girl: Another good Curve-sounding track, slightly more laid-back than the previous one. (Actually, rather Nine Inch Nails-sounding as well, at least based on my admittedly superficial knowledge of NIN's sound from their most recent live release...) Manages to feel simultaneously tense and relaxed, thanks to the mix of angular and smooth sound textures. I like the rap/spoken-word bit in the middle -- Toni makes everything she does, singing or speaking, sound magical. Another favorite track.

Cold Comfort (Deepsky Remix): I feel bad for this track, since it has to live up to the MP3 release, which has most likely been heard by a majority of the people purchasing this CD. The MP3 version, I felt, was very well written and arranged, a very groovy little track. In comparison, the Deepsky Remix is far too "remix"-sounding for my taste -- the song structure is completely gone, replaced by the "random sampling from here and there" approach, which I really despise. Musically and sonically the remix is interesting, very Headcase-sounding, which is all to the good. Unfortunately, though, it makes very little sense unless the listener is familiar with the original MP3 version of the track. It would have been better, IMHO, to have both versions available on this disc -- the original here in the album lineup, and the remix at the end of the disc. Then, perhaps, the Deepsky Remix would be better appreciated for what it is, which is not all that bad.

Star: Another good Curve track, I like how the verse builds through the bridge to the chorus. The bridges here are perhaps the only Garbage-sounding moments on the disc -- for all the talk about how similar Garbage's sound is to Curve's, I find it interesting that there are actually very few real moments of sonic similarity between the two groups. Alan Moulder (he's credited with guitar here) contributes some very nice guitar playing on this track, particularly with the almost-solo he has near the end.

Nice and Easy: I'm not sure if this track is mastered too loud for the rest of the disc, or if the song itself is just louder anyway. A really good melodic, crunchy Curvey track. Again, the guitars are put to good use on this track. I really like the sound of the guitars on this disc overall -- a bit different from Curve's usual use of guitars, but works just as well. As the shortest track on the disc, it feels like it's over way too soon.

Signals and Alibis: I like the trickling-water keyboard motif for this track. Dean's analog keyboard stuff seems to have moved up to another level with this album, particularly on this track. Toni's vocals are simply glorious. A lovely song, leaving me feeling as though I'm floating through the fog by a stream... Another one of my favorite tracks.

Sinner: Another very relaxed track, probably the most relaxed one on the disc. This time the focus is very much on Toni's vocals, with the accompaniment in a supporting role. I really love the lines "What goes up must come down / All that swims can also drown". Heavenly.

Joy: Whoa! A rather unexpected closer, reminiscent of "Overground" or "Come Clean" in that it's Curve doing punk rock. The major difference here -- Dean sings all the vocals! And they're really good, too, they fit the song perfectly. For some reason this track stuck in my memory very quickly, I found myself singing "I can see my life / Looking back on my life" at work. My roommate thought this one sounded a bit like the Beatles -- Beatles-punk, anyone? I suppose some fans might be a bit disturbed by the idea of a Curve song without Toni on vocals, but I liked it. Indeed, in future I think it would be really cool if Toni and Dean occasionally combined their vocal styles on a few tracks for some strong contrast, similar to their 1993 collaboration with Ian Dury ("What a Waste"). Oddly enough, I think this track is another one of my favorites!

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

A good release, somewhat reminiscent of "Open Day at the Hate Fest", only taken to another level. Which makes sense, since ODATHF was a compilation of recordings from 1996 through 2001, while the tracks on "The New Adventures of Curve" are all from 2002. I really like the fact that Curve aren't afraid to stretch out and do something really unexpected. I always enjoy being challenged as a listener by my favorite groups, to see if I can understand where they're coming from and what they're trying to do. While the cover may look like a throwback to Curve's earliest days, these are definitely the new adventures of Curve.

I still have yet to get a handle on Curve's approach to track order, though. Here, they put their two most unusual-sounding tracks -- "Answers" and "Joy" -- at the beginning and end of the disc. Then again, none of Curve's releases have made complete sense to me on a track-ordering level, so it's probably just me. I keep hoping that, someday, I'll finally understand how and why they arrange their album tracks the way they do...

Dean's atmospheric Headcase side-projects seem to be having a good effect on Curve, pulling the Curve sound in some unexpected directions. Side projects can serve one of two purposes -- as outlets for music that wouldn't fit the main group, or as experiments towards developing the main group's sound further. As with King Crimson's "ProjeKct" releases, Dean's Headcase albums appear to serve the latter function, operating as testing-grounds for new Curve ideas.

Another thing I haven't mentioned yet: Dean's bass work is always good. Not showy or attention-grabbing, but always well-judged and perfectly suited to the music. "Crystal" and "Perish" are the two primary examples of his excellent bass playing I usually think of, and while there isn't anything here that's quite so prominent, the same musicality forms the foundation of every song.

THE BOTTOM LINE

As an American Curve fan, having paid a little extra to acquire this release, was it worth it? Definitely yes! Nine tracks may not seem like much in today's CD age, but since most of the tracks are longer than usual it comes out to around 54 minutes of music (which is about the same amount of time covered by Come Clean's 13 tracks). At first it took me a while to get into this album, but the more I've listened to it the more and more I've fallen in love with it. Any Curve fan who has enjoyed their recent work won't be disappointed with this disc.

Here's to many more new adventures from Curve!

review by Gabriel Boehme (dated June 2002)

http://www.curve.co.uk for ordering details.