Not officially a “new” album as such, but as the album has just earned itself a vinyl release on Double A Side Records (having appeared on the wonderful Play it Like a Woman compilation), now is as good a time as any to revel in my love of the music of Curdle. A band who seem to announce a new live date every couple of days, and I can never get to any of them … as I keep saying, maybe next time.
I first came across the band when they supported Dead Hope in Glasgow’s Old Hairdressers and fell in love with the dark but uplifting racket they made, making sure I purchased the album on its release.
Give me your Phone Number…
It is hard to pin down the bands sound, take the first two tracks on the album. Give me Your Phone Number is a grungy drone rock number, sinister verses about cutting off heads, bodies and legs, culminating in the increasingly frenetically repeated screamed refrain Give Me Your Phone Number. Put it this way, you’d be scared to say no…
Next up, the pace changes on Top 3, the feel of the track almost Shangri-Las/The Chiffons-esque, with its laid back Shondells sounding guitar, backing oo’s and spoken word part. Bliss.
Some of the themes then, highly effective layered harmonised vocals, some fairly sinister lyrical themes death being high on the agenda, fuzzy garage rock guitars, throbbing heavy bass all coming together to form an alluringly hypnotic darkly gothic drone rock sound.
In My Car
Musically, In My Car is fittingly sinister as it sound-tracks lyrics like “His/her mother loved him/her, now he/she’s dead in my car”. Layered ominous vocals & throbbing bass take centre stage and are underlined by fuzzy guitar. Deeply vibrating bass once again introduces Your Body, My Head, another song that sees shared vocal harmonies add an intriguing atmosphere.
Curdle prove they aren’t all scary and po-faced by injecting a bit of fun with “Dave Gahan is Such a Love Butt”, while they reveal more about their musical influences/loves with “Dave Vanian”, kicking off tricking you into thinking its going to be New Rose, and nodding towards Love Song throughout.
Knock is almost Gregorian chant-like in its hummed intro, with the highly efficacious omnipresent solid bass kicking in and remaining throughout while I’ll Bury You All comes across like Jesus and Mary Chain in its introduction and the underlying rhythm, adding understated brass to the mix.
Red to the Elbows
The weird sci-fi sound of the theremin introduces Red to the Elbows before it develops into a Sonic Youth/L7 like sound, while retaining Curdle’s personality with the shared vocals and harmonising. It proceeds to become one of my album highlights.
Penultimate track Blue Black is a slow burner adding layers to the initial plaintive vocal and guitar. Flies on the Ceiling ends the album in the menacingly beautiful way it started, the fuzzy crunching low in the mix guitar, complemented once again by that bass, pace rising and falling, piercing screams, goth-like guitar and drum/cymbal breaks, give the album an engaging eerily atmospheric end.
Right Neil, detention time. 100 lines – I must make more of an effort to see Curdle live again….
Curdle – Bandcamp