The first time I listened to Curve was on the day of its’ release, 5 days after I saw Our Lady Peace perform at Cow Boys, the venue chosen in London Ontario (My home town) to kick off The Urban Grind Tour. While listening to Curve the first time, I couldn’t help but relate the album’s dark melodic tones to my personal relationship with Our Lady Peace that has stretched the last 15 years. I discovered music through them, and during the process the songs on their albums have accompanied my life, from puberty, through adolescence to the birth of my baby son and everything in between. They have been a constant, and while every album released by Our Lady Peace has brought me to similar levels of excitement awaiting the first listen, the experience of the first listen itself for this album was different.
Curve is as magical as any album in terms of how it can inspire emotion, the songs have a very deep musical texture which during the first listen caught my ear more than the vocals or lyrics, and for some reason I couldn’t shake the notion that this might be the last first time I listen to an Our Lady Peace album. After every song I glanced down and read the next title, cherishing every first new song, and couldn’t help but think when “If this is It” played, if this was indeed it.
I believe a lot of these thoughts were driven by the fact that the last three times I saw Our Lady Peace on their headlining tours in London the venues have gotten smaller from a 15,000 seat arena (John Labatt Centre) to 700 capacity bar (Cow Boys). While, I know the band is independent now, and smaller venues are par for the course, Cow Boys is still much smaller than Centennial Hall which was scheduled for 2 days during the band’s last independent tour.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate more than anybody the idea of this, and have made excuses to myself about a number of things that point away from this idea. However, I do feel that if there is an intention to go out on a high note, Curve would be about as fitting as there is.
Anybody else care to weigh in on this thought?