New Album in 2012 - "Curve" April 3rd

[OLPManiac]

Well guys i think that these reviewers didn't listen the album....there isn't any explanation to this ignorance!!(well i know that these reviewers told theirs personal opinions but there are some limits!) Well i think that maybe some songs cannot be amazing(but are good in every case)...damn on this record we have songs like Rabbits and Find Our Way that are probably two of the best OLP's songs to date! And there are others songs on Curve that haven't got nothing to envy to others OLP's songs!

[MyronJ906]

:wall:

why do so many of these reviewers have an obvious problem with olp still making music? its a safe bet to assume that most of these reviews would read exactly the same no matter what curve sounded like, very pathetic.

I'm going to have to agree there. It seems like none of the reviewers have even really listened to the album past a few seconds of each track. The general vibe is "go away Our Lady Peace" as opposed to commenting on the music and album itself.

I have been listening to this album as part of my daily commute to and from school lately and I must say, it makes PERFECT car music. The pacing, atmosphere, everything. Me, I'm in love with the album. I can definitely relate to it more now than I can some of the older stuff.

Reviewers need to accept that Our Lady Peace has moved on. I know it is difficult to strip their history from them, but they are obviously not trying to get back to their former sound. However (as Curve shows in my opinion) they are trying to get back to that level of artistry.

[Tattooed Angels]

what insults me most on all those reviews is that they think OLP had only young fans.

It seems alot of these guys are trying to recapture the youth they had in the 90's. The band has moved on from that era. They continue to grow with each cd. You do not hav eto like themusic but all these comparisons to the 90's is so played now..

BTW Raine was singing long before Matt Bellamy came on the scene( and I love Muse)

Thanks Todddowney. I look forward to tomorrow's negative review. You seem to find them. LOL..

Just wait till next week when the record is *officially* released in USA

[faninor]

its a safe bet to assume that most of these reviews would read exactly the same no matter what curve sounded like, very pathetic. how dare they keep on making music of any kind after being so good in the 90's!

It's probably like obituaries for celebrities -- mostly written months or years in advance with opinions, clever comments, and conclusions already formed. Just need to fill in a few details like the album name and some song titles, maybe describe a few of the tracks to show that you actually listened to something.

[matt292]

That Mark Teo's FFWD review is embarrassing on his behalf when he explains his youth.

Thing is, a lot of these negative reviews are from people/sites/magazines that I have never, ever heard of. (Maybe because I'm from UK, but still)

Next year I'll still be listening to Curve, and will still love Heavyweight.

Next year I'll have no idea who Mark Theo is - I'll have forgotten him and his bitter sounding review.

I think reviewers give things scathing reviews at times just to get known, they want to make a name for themselves in journalism. If they'd raved about something the majority didn't like, they'd get ignored. If they are harsh about something people like, then it seems like they have high standards and people might want to read their stuff. Either way, I don't care what they say, and I realise I got this idiot's surname wrong the second time I wrote it, meh.

The reviews I read more of, and take more notice of are the ones from fans like all of you on this message board. Obviously you're all honest fans that have been listening for years and years, so you know about the evolution of the band. Reviewers like this Mike Teo (EDIT: Sorry, got it wrong again) only compare OLP's stuff to Naveed and Clumsy. Obviously they haven't heard HINAFTYCC, Spiritual Machines, Gravity, HIPT or Burn Burn - so they can't give a full account can they?


We all know Curve is good anyway

[todddowney]

Our Lady Peace Get Back To Basics Without Rehashing Past On 'Curve'

My criticism of Our Lady Peace has been pretty consistent. With Naveed and Clumsy, the Canadian rockers became the country’s foremost grunge act. When grunge washed out, however, OLP struggled to solidify an identity and began pursuing fruitful reverberations that worked for other bands. This was never more apparent than on their 2009 release, Burn, Burn. Reviewing it on some other site, I called the album “more of the same.”

So here’s Curve, OLP’s eighth studio album. It features Canadian boxer George Chuvalo on the cover and was recorded at lead singer Raine Maida’s Los Angeles studio.

So is Curve “more of the same” or has Our Lady Peace discovered their character as a band again? Is the new album another concentration of outside stimuli or does it strike a distinctive chord for Maida, Jeremy Taggart (drums), Duncan Coutts (bass), and Steve Mazur (guitar)?

The news, I’m happy to report, is good. Curve is everything that made OLP a somewhat interesting group in the first place. It is not the band’s best shot at a Coldplay or a Radiohead record, thank goodness, and it’s not a tortuous sliver of “art rock” without a heart. It is a collation of OLP’s original rock elements knit with experimental awareness. It is broadminded, but not merely for the sake of it.

It is also a deeply passionate record, right down to Maida’s vocals. Unlike his cluttered solo effort and some of OLP’s more contemporary work, he is fixated on the core of the music and on generating moving moments in time. His nose for songcraft is obvious now, like it was with the luminously unhinged Naveed and the radio-friendly Clumsy, but his mind is open and his nasally tenor is fittingly agitated in all the right places.

With respect to a weak point, the rhythm section is a little on the flavourless side. Taggart is a capable drummer, no question about it, but things are played fairly close to the chest on this album.

OLP continues their tendency for valiant album openers with “Allowance,” a dynamic, melodically buoyant song. Taggart batters out a disco beat as thumps of keys give the number an anthemic, huge arena texture. Maida scrambles the chord changes in somewhat off-centre approach and Mazur cuts some well-ordered guitar into the mix.

“Heavyweight,” the first single from Curve, lets Maida jog out the falsetto and the associated vocal paraphernalia. Mazur’s guitar chomps along, setting the stage for what really is a damn good melodic hook.

My personal favourite track is the lovely and contemplative “Will Someday Change,” a cut that serves as a valuable reminder that Our Lady Peace can pen a pretty decent ballad. Maida runs very close to melodrama, as expected, but his falsetto and ability to drop his tenor to a near -murmur crafts some appreciated tenderness.

Curve isn’t an earth-shattering rock record and, let’s be honest, Our Lady Peace was never really an earth-shattering band. Theirs is a heritage of trying to find a place to happen, so to speak, in a parcel of broader and better talents. With this record, though, OLP’s journey back to basics is certainly a step in the right direction.

[SpiritualJunkie]

"Curve isn’t an earth-shattering rock record and, let’s be honest, Our Lady Peace was never really an earth-shattering band."

Ugh. Hate pretentious statements like this which are totally false. I just read somewhere the OLP is the #3 selling Canadian rock band after Nickelback and the Tragically Hip, so clearly this guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I remember being a kid and seeing Clumsy everywhere in stores. I had never actually listened to their music but the sense that OLP was really popular and the creepy looking cover were enough to make me want to buy this record (I didn't until years after when I became hooked on Spiritual Machines).

[johnpeterson]

i think what some of these reviewers maybe aren't getting is that curve is a grower... i didn't think much of it on first listen (didn't know what to think), but now i can't get enough of it and never skip any tracks (except "window seat" after the great intro). i await a good public review from an actual longtime fan that has had time to absorb the album.

[Tattooed Angels]

here is another one. Not sure if put up.They all look the same after awhile. BTW according to that interview they did in NYC they retired WHATEVER due to the nature of Chris' Benoit's Death.. When was the last time that song was done anyway..I think the last time I saw it was early 2000's..

CD * offically * comes out in USA on Tuesday> I am tempted to go to store to see if they ever have it. Then again not many stores around here anymore. Just BestBuy( that never ever seems to have anything anymore) and Targets.

Our Lady Peace makes a return to fighting form on Curve
By John Lucas, April 13, 2012

Curve (Warner)

You’ve got to give Our Lady Peace points for honesty. Without coming right out and saying that the band lost the thread at some point in the past decade, singer Raine Maida, in press materials accompanying Curve , says “This is the record we’ve been trying to make for the past 10 years.” Maida also says that making the album found him and his bandmates “truly challenging ourselves to come up with something more authentic and inspired”.

Reading between the lines, the frontman seems to be admitting that the world was justified in all but ignoring OLP’s last few albums, and that singles like “All You Did Was Save My Life” and “The End Is Where We Begin”, while big and important-sounding, were formulaic rockers that didn’t satisfy either the artistic or commercial goals of the Toronto group. Listening to them, it’s hard to imagine they’re by the same band (albeit with a different guitarist) that emerged during the mid ’90s alt-rock explosion, with songs (like “The Birdman” and “Starseed”) that bristled with postgrunge angst but didn’t really sound like anything else.

Since we can all probably agree with what Maida seems to be saying—that Our Lady Peace lost the plot some time after original guitarist Mike Turner’s departure in 2001—let’s move on to the present. Because you know what? Curve is a good record. Not just “okay for a band past its prime” good, but actually really good. Right from the opening moments, the group seems determined to let it be known that this isn’t going to be just another in a series of mundane albums. “Allowance” kicks off with what sounds like analogue synth tones lifted from a Tubeway Army B-side. While drummer Jeremy Taggart hammers out a beat that splits the difference between krautrock motorik and four-on-the-floor rock, the rest of the band turns in the kind of anthem that suggests Our Lady Peace has been taking notes at Arcade Fire shows.

In fact, throughout the record, you can make reasonable guesses as to what Maida and company have been listening to. Duncan Coutts’s snaky, fuzzed-up bass groove on “Fire in the Henhouse”, for example, wouldn’t sound out of place on a Muse disc, and the rest of the song follows suit. Elsewhere, Steve Mazur’s off-the-rails guitar solo on “Find Our Way” bears a more than passing resemblance to Jonny Greenwood’s indelible lead on Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”. But who cares? Everyone borrows, and Our Lady Peace hasn’t sounded this energized in years. The band credits coproducer Jason Lader with helping to ignite a long-dormant fire under its ass, and kudos to him for that.

Maida still sings like a man convinced that the fate of the world rests on his every word. It doesn’t, but the fate of his band might very well depend on how Curve fares. The general theme of the record is perseverance in the face of adversity, and finding one’s feet again after landing in the gutter. Fittingly, a photo of Canadian boxer George Chuvalo graces the album’s cover.

Chuvalo is a survivor in more than one respect, and if the songs on Curve are any indication, Our Lady Peace—which plays the Commodore next Thursday (April 19)—could very well follow in his footsteps. Don’t call it a comeback, though: OLP’s been here for years. But now the group is finally making music it can be proud of again.

[MindsOnLoan]

Curve is currently 7th on American iTunes' Rock charts, and 47th overall.

Also, interestingly enough, If This Is It is currently the most popular song on OLP's American iTunes.

[Tattooed Angels]

Curve is currently 7th on American iTunes' Rock charts, and 47th overall.

Also, interestingly enough, If This Is It is currently the most popular song on OLP's American iTunes.

that is because one of the best songs on CD..

sad thing is I went to the Best Buy near my job. Only store still left here. Not only did they not have Curve. They did not even have a space for OLP.. This is why I pre-order cd's or order cd's in general..

[todddowney]

[DG]

No falsetto? People really need to look up that term and learn what it is, because it's on this record.

[Flynner]

No falsetto? People really need to look up that term and learn what it is, because it's on this record.

By no means do I agree with this reviewer, I love the album, but there is hardly any faslsetto. Thats one thing I was let down with , especially since Raine was making comments like, "there's too much falsetto on the album". But in my books this is there best effort in 10 years.

[faninor]

I agree that there's no standout track, because they're all quite good.

[RileyLewis]

That review is dumb, but he is right about the falsetto. I have a feeling they had a few more songs like Grocery List with lots of falsetto but scrapped them for whatever reason. If This Is It also had lots of falsetto in the chorus but it got changed to a more standard radio-friendly rock chorus.

[jamesellaby]

Hi everyone, apologies for posting a link in my first post, awful etiquette I know. I've been an OLP fan since seeing the video for Naveed on MTV in the UK back in 1995/96 and I've reviewed Curve on my website here: http://www.newadventuresinhifi.com/2012 ... ve-review/

I hope you all like it more than the others that have been posted on this thread!

[todddowney]

Nice review.

[MindsOnLoan]

Everybody start going through and "liking" the positive reviews on their iTunes. Looks like the same 1 or 2 people have gone through and liked the bad ones so they're the top ones to show up.

[MindsOnLoan]

Also, disappointed in the AllMusic review. They usually do a pretty decent job at assessing the band's music... this time they gave Curve 2.5/5, the same rating they gave Burn Burn. I went to check the review, and it was literally copied and pasted from iTunes.