New Album in 2012 - "Curve" April 3rd

[Furious George]

Yadayada. Professional music reviews mean nothing to me.. previous reviews of brilliant OLP albums have been similar.

Anyways, just as a personal addendum.. the thing I absolutely absolutely love about this album is that I know I'll still be listening to it years from now with the same enthusiasm. I can't say the same for Burn Burn or even HIPT despite it having some good songs on it.

[senseofurgency]

Yadayada. Professional music reviews mean nothing to me.. previous reviews of brilliant OLP albums have been similar.

this.

i noticed happiness was paricularly bashed by critics .

[todddowney]

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.

"Radiohead-meets-the National single "Heavyweights."

[OLPManiac]

Well the album is still in top ten in rock US album http://www.apple.com/euro/itunes/charts ... lbums.html
And If This Is It is the top song of OLP! http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/our-l ... mpt=uo%3D2
I think it needs to be the third single! Curve is also their top album! I'm happy to see this!
Here in Italy probably i'm the only one that buy the album on the launch date

[Tattooed Angels]

It seems from the brief negative reviews I see that the people writing want the cd to sound like CLUMSY 2.. Geez people move on. OLP sure has. Like the cd on it's own merit, dislike the cd on it's own merit. To not like it cause Raine is not doing falsetto, or it does not sound like Clumsy or whatever older OLP cd you want it just plain stupid to me..

I happen to really dig this cd. The only song that does not really grab me is Find Our Way. I would say that is least fave..

in the end though I think that is what matters most to the band. What the long time fans or fans in general think of this cd.

[bd007h]

pre-ordered the album last week from newburycomics (being in the states) after having the rip for a couple weeks, and it just arrived today with an autographed booklet. Was hoping it would arrive yesterday on the US Release date haha.

[RileyLewis]

It seems from the brief negative reviews I see that the people writing want the cd to sound like CLUMSY 2.. Geez people move on. OLP sure has. Like the cd on it's own merit, dislike the cd on it's own merit. To not like it cause Raine is not doing falsetto, or it does not sound like Clumsy or whatever older OLP cd you want it just plain stupid to me..

I happen to really dig this cd. The only song that does not really grab me is Find Our Way. I would say that is least fave..

in the end though I think that is what matters most to the band. What the long time fans or fans in general think of this cd.

I think it's fair to not be happy about the lack of falsetto. I think the album would be better because of it. I also don't think it's really important what long-time fans think of it compared to other people because honestly there is such a varied opinion from that group. Who counts as long-time? There were tonnes of people who loved Naveed and Clumsy but hated Happiness and everything afterward because the grunge sound was what made OLP great for them, and have since left as fans. Meanwhile new people came into the mix. So who is more correct? For me, it’s the experimental music and edgy/falsetto-tinged voice of Raine that made them great. So many long-time fans will hate Curve because it’s so far removed from OLP’s origin. Others who started off with Gravity will think Curve is too weird. And others will love it because they like a wider range of music. And all are valid. Music is completely subjective. I think (while being decent in terms of effort) Gravity is crap. And Burn Burn was bad too, with the exception of Paper Moon and maybe a few small parts of other songs. HIPT was also bad, mostly. Curve is a decent record, and I think it’s interesting musically. Vocally it’s better than the past 2 or 3, but it’s not great, by any means. If you showed people in 2000 what Raine would sound like today they would cringe, and rightly so, I think. I might be attacked for that, but I think it’s accurate. Curve is a good album, and it’s their best in years. But it’s ok for people to not like it. I think we’d all be mad if OLP release a Shania-Twain sounding country album because it’s nothing like what we expect. So I think it’s fair to deride their current work for not being grungy enough, or experimental enough, or alternative enough. It’s all just opinion, and people should lighten up.

[senseofurgency]

If you showed people in 1998 what Raine would sound like today they would cringe, and rightly so, I think.

yeah, don't agree with that too much. with the exception of car crash and supermans dead, i find his voice pretty irritating on clumsy and would much rather listen to his voice on curve.

[Furious George]

If you showed people in 1998 what Raine would sound like today they would cringe, and rightly so, I think.

yeah, don't agree with that too much. with the exception of car crash and supermans dead, i find his voice pretty irritating on clumsy and would much rather listen to his voice on curve.

Kinda know what you mean. Clumsy vocals I really like but I just have to take a lower dosage of it .. aka I can't listen to it for too long just cause it is so intensely edgy/scratchy. I personally think Raine found his vocal shtick on Spiritual Machines and Gravity. He feels more comfortable with his voice on those albums. I'm pretty cool with his Curve vocals when he's not slurring a whole lot. (What I call the Burn Burn effect..)

[todddowney]

[senseofurgency]

I prefer a hybrid version of SM & Gravity Raine, with some other elements finding their way into things. Curve fell short of that, but was the closest yet.

yeah, as much as i love the rawness of his voice on naveed, it's the early 2000's that my ears enjoy best. there's a few notes here or there on curve that i think he could've pulled off better (the way he sings the line 'if this is it' being one) but for the most part i'm just happy that there's emotion shown in there.

speaking of raine, i just checked out some of the videos from the calgary show on youtube and he's really nailing everything live at the minute, definitely sounds stronger than he did during the burnburn tour.

[todddowney]

One of the better reviews yet, save for the inaccuracies regarding Chris Benoit.

Music Review: Our Lady Peace - Curve
By D. Gabrielle Jensen, BLOGCRITICS.ORG
Published 02:37 p.m., Wednesday, April 18, 2012

We all have our favorite bands and artists, who we follow relentlessly, whose every move we have documented. We know every plan they have regarding tours and new releases. And then there are the staples in our collections who we tend to forget until they put out something new. For me, Our Lady Peace is one of those bands. I enjoy their sounds, rarely skip them when they are given their turn in shuffle, say "Oh, yeah, they're awesome," when they come up in conversation, but they have never quite made it into the list of bands I follow. So when they release something new, it is like a rebirth for me. Finding, again, something that has brought me hours of enjoyment in the past.

The eighth studio release, and first in three years, from Canada's Our Lady Peace (OLP), entitled Curve, has seen the band facing new technologies that were not available to them during the creation of their 2009 release, Burn Burn. For the first time, fans were given an inside look at the production process as the band streamed some of the recording process live on the internet. The addition of this new technology was not the only experimentation Raine Maida and crew applied to the creation of Curve. Curve also offers fans a new, more synthesized, electric sound, as the band found new musical toys to play with as well.

While not a "concept" album, there seems to be a distinct theme of fighting - as a sport - throughout the album, starting with the cover photo of boxer George Chuvalo, who offers a bit of dialog on the album's closing track, "Mettle," and continuing through the video for the album's first single, "Heavyweight," which clearly has its own fighting connotations in its title. The question arises whether this was a conscious decision or something that just "kind of happened," as recording spanned over the death of friend and fellow Canadian, MMA fighter Chris Benoit, who had used the band's "Whatever" as his introductory track.

Growth has happened, change has happened, but that is to be expected when a band spends two and a half years writing an album, rather than the six to eight months that has become somewhat of an industry standard. While time seems to be a luxury that most artists (or their label execs) don't feel they can afford, there are still a few in the industry who insist on putting in the work and the time to polish an album and create something they are proud of.

Critics of these artists - be it OLP or anyone else who takes their time to finesse the songwriting process - always seem to focus on how different "this album" is from "their last album." They offer no heed to the time that was spent creating the new release, electing to compare these artists, instead, to the annual and semi-annual assembly line creations of other artists. Three years of creation is a long time for an artist or band to learn new techniques, to have life experiences, to fall in love with new influences. Growth happens and it tends to be more obvious when years pass between album releases, rather than months. I believe it has been to the benefit of OLP, not to their detriment.

"Fire in the Henhouse" is the second track on the album and begins hauntingly enough then breaks into the ambitious new electronic experimentation that laces through Curve. A harsh rhyme scheme has grown on me through several spins of the track; at first it was extremely off-putting but the more I listened the more I enjoyed the choppiness of the AABB rhyme and soon found myself singing along.

"Heavyweight" - This first single from comes with a video that has been both applauded for its artistic value and criticized for not including footage of the band except in flashes. The images that have been pieced together to create this visual representation are images of sorrow, poverty, hardship and at the same time there is a sense of pride and effort that comes through in those flashed pictures. As an introductory single, "Heavyweight" holds its own and delivers a strong idea of what listeners can expect of the rest of the album.Curve

"As Fast As You Can" is a poppy, hand-clap-driven track that brings to mind a clear memory of "Vertigo"-era U2. In fact, if not for Maida's unmistakable rasp, it could easily be taken for a U2 song. This really is the only song on the album that, for me, feels like a renegade piece that may have gotten mixed in from another puzzle; one that doesn't quite fit.

"If This Is It" is an early favorite for this writer. As it eases into the melody, I have found a new favorite lyric from a band that has produced a lot of my favorite lyrics over the years: "I could be your greatest accident." Unfortunately, there comes a time when a writer finds herself so enraptured by a track that finding the objective words to describe it becomes among the most daunting of tasks. "If This Is It" presents that problem. Words like "haunting," "addictive," and "captivating" have worked their way through my vocabulary, all of them feeling so subjective, so emotionally-driven, that I question their validity.

Overall, if one considers the time that was spent to create Curve and give allowance for the new experiences and growth patterns that have shaped the sound of this album, avoiding the temptation to compare it note-for-note to previous efforts, it is a beautiful piece of music worthy of dropping some hard earned coin to own. Save for the aforementioned "As Fast As You Can," Curve follows a flow that few albums achieve today. Curve follows a flow that, frankly, few artists even seem to strive for anymore. Every song feels like an extension of the one before it, a preface to the one that follows, while still standing sturdy on its own.

Curve, the eighth release from Our Lady Peace, is available from Warner Music as of April 17, 2012 - following an April 3 Canadian release - online and in stores everywhere popular music is sold.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/blog ... z1sRcpYHM8

[RileyLewis]

I picked a random early date. Replace 1998 with 2000 then, same idea.

[faninor]

And others will love it because they like a wider range of music....

So I think it’s fair to deride their current work for not being grungy enough, or experimental enough, or alternative enough. It’s all just opinion, and people should lighten up.

Fair? Sure... however, IMO a good music critic is open to a wider range of music than the average person. If they're reviewing a band that has an extremely specific sound that doesn't usually change album to album and they take a completely different direction on the new record... then ok, it's probably a very valid thing to mention in your review.

But I think OLP's covered a lot of sonic territory in the past 20 years, so when a critic puts the band's entire career in a box and essentially says, "the less like Clumsy it sounds, the worse it is," that's a pretty close-minded perspective to be publishing. Not every good album in the world sounds like Clumsy, and a good album is a good album regardless of what band's name is on the cover.

[FireGX]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R285Y0ykUxA
hahaha Trusty getting some shoutouts for himself

[todddowney]

Another lengthy review. At least it takes the proper time to think things over. In summary, Curve is not breaking any new sonic territory (just listen to Muse) and OLP still haven't found themselves with Mazur. First they sold out, then made bland music, and now sound like Muse.

Our Lady Peace: Curve
By Colin McGuire 19 April 2012
PopMatters Music Reviews Editor

Our Lady peace had a hell of a four-album run to open their career. 1994’s Naveed burst the act into the mainstream within the confines of their native Canada, with help from singles such as “Birdman” and the record’s title track. Clumsy followed and catapulted the quartet onto rock radio stateside on the heels of “Superman’s Dead”. Things then got interesting as 1999’s Happiness ... Is Not a Fish That You Can Catch wasn’t as commercially successful as its predecessors, though it provided the group an odd sense of credibility as the album proved to be popular within both casual and hardcore fans alike. Spiritual Machines—the 2000 love letter to Ray Kurzweil’s book of the same name—then accrued legend status to those who followed the band, its over-your-head concept premise impressing listeners everywhere and its pop song-writing chops proving to be as accessibly hip as the band has ever been. Both longtime fans and critics have often considered it the band’s masterpiece.

... And then Mike Turner left. And no matter how many times the band’s members insist his departure didn’t matter all that much, the group’s legacy has subsequently been divided into The Years With Mike Turner and The Years Without Mike Turner. To this day, it’s hard to put a finger on what exactly it is that changed. Gravity, the 2002 album that brought Our Lady Peace its most mainstream success to date behind the infectious “Somewhere Out There”, was guitarist Steve Mazur’s first go-around with the band, and combined with Bob Rock’s production tricks, the effort showcased a decidedly harder sound with a more polished edge. So, you can point to that when trying to figure out where the change came from, if you’d like. But after the disappointing and rushed (their words, not mine) Healthy in Paranoid Times, they erased Rock from the equation and yet Burn Burn, Our Lady Peace’s first DIY-fueled album, still didn’t quite measure up to those first four records.

It’s one of recent rock’s great mysteries, really. Yeah, the guitars have more low-end now, and sure, Turner carved out a specific style he perfected that added an element of atmosphere to Our Lady Peace’s sound that might not be there today. But in reality, it’s hard to come up with a legitimate, all-encompassing, objective reason for the decline in substance of the band’s work. It’s a little more accessible and crunchy, sure, but since when did accessibility and crunch completely ruin a band’s sound?

Naturally, then—and almost in a vague sign of defeat—it should come as no surprise that the band is doing everything it can to point out that its latest effort, Curve, is the closest Our Lady Peace have come to sounding like their one critical darling, Spiritual Machines. And naturally, much like they insist the lack of Mike Turner in the band has no bearing on what direction the band has since headed, their case for art rock domination is fundamentally flawed here for reasons that probably can’t even be palpably supported.

The most obvious comparison between the two albums is the fact that both are loosely based around a concept. Spiritual Machines had a book. Curve has boxing. The attempt at centering the album around a singular idea here, though, comes off as nothing more than a cheap attempt to recreate the type of cohesive ideals that made Spiritual Machines so mesmerizing. Instead of spoken-track verses read from a book, here we merely receive an album cover featuring Canadian boxer George Chuvalo throwing a punch, a first single called “Heavyweight” and a final track spliced with what sounds like movie quotes. And that’s it. That’s the list. Call it a concept album if you want. Just don’t call it Spiritual Machines Part 2.

Musically, Curve sees the band take an odd, if not surprising turn. Gone is the pop-hard-rock Our Lady Peace have settled into within recent years showcased best on Burn Burn‘s “Dreamland” or Gravity‘s “Not Enough” or “Do You Like It”. In is a seemingly blatant attempt at recapturing and updating the ambiguity that shone so well on Spiritual Machines and even Happiness …. For instance, Curve‘s “Window Seat” is an experiment gone awry that quickly blurs the line between interesting and boring. Its slow tempo sets the mood well, but as the song begins to simmer in an epic fashion typically associated with ... say ... U2, the track never really boils over in the way it should. Its lack of climax ultimately proves disappointing rather than poignant.

Then, when Our Lady Peace decide to get back to the rock, the result may leave some longtime fans scratching their heads. “Allowance” and “As Fast As You Can” evokes Muse in the most obvious of ways with their fuzzed out grooves and simplistic pop songwriting approach. Sure, the change in direction should be applauded if only because it proves how willing the group is to evolve and how fearless they prove to be while doing so. But considering how unoriginal the tracks appear to be—seriously, spin most anything from Muse’s 2006 Black Holes and Revelations, immediately switch to either of these tracks and the similarities will haunt you for days—one is forced to ask the question of why the band would go to such lengths to try and sound so drastically different from who they once were. The performance comes across as more of a white flag than an act of evolution.

Still, there are at least some notable bright spots that would be irresponsible to ignore. “Fire in the Henhouse” and single “Heavyweight” are probably the closest the band have sounded to the days of old in recent years, most obviously because of Duncan Coutts’ bass being more prominent here than it has been in the last decade or so. “Heavyweight”‘s “You’ve gotta/stop/drop/roll” refrain that sees the majority of the band fade is even a tad reminiscent of Spiritual‘s “Everyone’s a Junkie”. And “Will Someday Change” sees another first for the band: a proper piano ballad. Accompanied by little else (sparse guitar parts veer in and out), the song features Maida and a piano combining for a pretty, if not understated, outcome that unexpectedly works well next to the rest of the album’s tracks.

But unfortunately, even those bright spots prove to be nothing more than a few band-aids on a problem that has grown larger than even the guys in Our Lady Peace could have ever imagined. Curve marks album No. 4 without Turner, equaling the amount of work the group put in with its former guitarist. Pitting both strings of albums against one another, it’s hard to believe most fans of Our Lady Peace wouldn’t side with the former rather than the latter and this latest release only really solidifies that. Curve is the sound of a band completely lost, aimlessly feeling around a dark room for a light switch that probably won’t even turn on if any of them can actually find it. Starting over is impossible at this point and throwing all the blame on Mazur’s heavier guitars isn’t entirely fair, considering the band has had four albums now to find its footing with him as a full-time member.

Spiritual Machines, this album most certainly is not. That was a different idea, during a different time, featuring a different band. Today’s version of Our Lady Peace isn’t that same band, for better or for worse, and this album is proof that today’s incarnation isn’t exactly sure about where they will be tomorrow in spite of having a firm grasp on where they were yesterday. It’s because of that precise idiom that Curve fails, leaving little hope for a legacy that at one time was filled with promising tomorrows.

[OLPManiac]

Guys i was thinking...why the various reviewers didn't talk of Find Our Way or Rabbits or If This Is It? I didn't understand.....

[todddowney]

[RileyLewis]

And others will love it because they like a wider range of music....

So I think it’s fair to deride their current work for not being grungy enough, or experimental enough, or alternative enough. It’s all just opinion, and people should lighten up.

Fair? Sure... however, IMO a good music critic is open to a wider range of music than the average person. If they're reviewing a band that has an extremely specific sound that doesn't usually change album to album and they take a completely different direction on the new record... then ok, it's probably a very valid thing to mention in your review.

But I think OLP's covered a lot of sonic territory in the past 20 years, so when a critic puts the band's entire career in a box and essentially says, "the less like Clumsy it sounds, the worse it is," that's a pretty close-minded perspective to be publishing. Not every good album in the world sounds like Clumsy, and a good album is a good album regardless of what band's name is on the cover.

I can agree with that. I think it's fair to say something like "they have a wind range of music over the years, but nothing has surpassed their best sound, which was ________." You're right in that it's not fair to box them in with a specific sound as it has changed a lot. For me they've gone through 4 phases:

Naveed/Clumsy - Grungy rock
Happiness/SM - Experimental rock
Gravity - bland rock
HIPT/Burn Burn - boring rock

And now curve returns a tiny bit more to the experimental side, and I'd say is halfway between Burn Burn and SM. It's not quite as creative or new, I think, as SM was, but it's a good album, and I think it will generally stay good with time. Burn Burn was liked by many of us when it came out, but it hasn't aged well. It didn't really have a lot of interesting music, and didn't push any boundaries or contain passion or energy. With Curve some of those boundaries are being pushed again. I still think it lacks a little energy it could have had (they don't seem to translate their stage energy to album very well, of all the bands I listen to), but the music itself is interesting again, and less predictable.

[todddowney]

(they don't seem to translate their stage energy to album very well, of all the bands I listen to), but the music itself is interesting again, and less predictable.

This is something I've always thought as well. Can't put my finger on the exact reason. Speaking of that, if they could have executed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grHlAgbz ... re=related in the studio, I'd pay $100.00 for it.