Customer Reviews

Cuckoo

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'll try my damndest not to be an old fart, but the fact is that bands who've subsequently copied earlier bands cannot be given due props for the simple fact that they're only photocopies.

Curve set the bar with "Doppelganger", then raised it even higher with the singles collection "Pubic Fruit". But as a link between those two albums, "Cuckoo" hardly comes off as lacklustre. In fact, it meshes the softer, more melodic feel of the first album with a new vitality/abrasiveness.

"Superblaster" was the lead-off single, and it's a fine tune, but hardly the best of the bunch. That designation belongs to "Turkey Crossing", "Crystal", "Missing Link", and especially "Unreadable Communication".

The latter is a track just begging to be placed in a movie somewhere. The dynamics of the song hearken back to earlier synth gurus like Japan and Gary Numan, but the delivery by Toni Halliday is unmatched, even to this day.

Listening to it now, it only makes me realize how good that band really was, and how ahead of their time they were. One of the most underrated albums of the 90s.

Critics were waiting for Curve to trip up with their follow-up to `92's 'Doppelganger'. But they didn't. Incorporating a more electronic feel to the album, Curve again thrilled fans and critics alike. Reviews posted here suggesting this is not as good as 'Doppelganger' are, in my view, completely unfounded. It is as good as their debut.

'Missing Link' goes all rock on us, but never loses its melody, proving Curve's versatility. 'Crystal' is a brilliant song. Combining a catchy chorus with Toni's intelligent lyrics and a bouncy bassline courtesy of Dean, this is a joy to listen to.
'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus starts off menacingly enough but evolves into an marvellously beguiling pop song with some beautiful vocal melodies. 'Unreadable Communication' gives all of that days electronic producers a run for their money. Its dubby electronics envelop into a wall of noise of guitars with Toni's voice cutting through it all.

Elsewhere, 'Superblaster' is a perfect pop song, pop in the true sense, not N'Sync! 'Left of Mother' shows a more acoustic side of Curve, albeit involving some electronics.

This group set the standard which Garbage took and copied. Originals will always be better, as will Curve.

I first became familiar with the band Curve back in the early '90s. While my peers were into lesser desirable forms of music, I was heavily into alternative music. I came upon this particular Curve album when I was perusing the record store for new music. My curiousity was piqued and I bought "Cuckoo" on a whim. Too be honest I have not listened to "Cuckoo" in almost a decade. At the time, I wasn't sure what to make of the music. I wasn't quite the fusion of rock and techno as I am now. I recently put in "Cuckoo" into my stereo tonight and found myself enjoying it more than I did when I was in high school (or a freshman in college). If anything, "Cuckoo" was way ahead of its time. If there is a modern equivalent to Curve today, it would have to be the band Collide. And maybe Garbage but with a Scottish accent. The similiarities in kaRIN and Toni Halliday's singing styles (in my opinion) are obvious. Both women have a seductive style of singing while the music is often abrasive and caustic. "Cuckoo" is definitely harder than its predecessor "Doppelganger", more guitar-orientated. As I continue to listen to "Cuckoo", I find myself falling more in love with the album. The songs are simply wonderful. I particularly enjoyed the first four tracks. Curve is truly one of the most underrated bands in the past ten years. They deserve a lot more recognition than most bands today.

This is a great album of early '90s trance rock, basically in the same genre as the bands Ride and My Bloody Valentine (from the same era) and, perhaps more remotely, as the bands Oasis and Garbage (from the mid or late '90s). Curve, with their female lead singer and catchy dance beats, could in fact be described as a much less mainstream and a much more Gothic kind of Garbage (no irony intended): if you take out the "v" in the band's name, you get, after all, none other than the mighty Cure! And like the Cure's Robert Smith, lead singer Toni Halliday drowns the listener with a convincing pose of dark, misunderstood victimhood. Her persona is much less assertive than Garbage's Shirley Manson. The connection with MBV and even Oasis comes from Curve's streaming, feedback-laden guitars. I found "Cuckoo" to be a more satisfying album than "Doppelgaenger" because of its richer instrumentation, melodic coherence, and appropriately noisier mix. But the skinny is, if you like any of the above-named bands, you'll probably love "Cuckoo." It's brooding, obscure, and it rocks.

As with many timeless peices of musical genious, this album is a grower. At first the whole album seems to blend into itself, initially making it slightly inaccessable. However, after a few emertions, you will not be able to take your body and mind out of this sensual blue water...

Cuckoo is a superb, genre-busting album that can only be described as: transient-industrial-ambient-trip-hop-rythmic-rock!?

Curve deserve to be more famous and after falling in love with this album I, and no doubt you, will want to buy all their other numbers - which I am having trouble finding anywhere other than in Amozon Net CD shop! Little tip: For your first exposure, put it in the cd player and emmerse yourself somewhere in the middle, like track 6 or 7 and keep repeating those tracks, then move onto the rest.

This is a beautiful, vile and hammering record. Three years of listening and still not bored.

Curves first three full lengths are all good- later albums come clean(their worst) and gift (solid return to old form) but its the early to mid 90s curve that is in top form. Even though both pubic fruit and doppleganger contain some amazing tracks- cuckoo is the most coherent and offers more versatile proof of their talent. Crystal is the first sign- a great moody piece that builds with the wall of sound guitar electronics- there is more restraint and control in their sound and it is also the best produced cd from the 90-94 period. acoustic guitars(a new lush approach) makes its appearance on left of mother- a truly beautiful ballad that was very unique at the time. This sound lead to alot the female triphop stuff so prevalent nowadays- in fact curve were well ahead of the game- and the garbage comparison is valid though curve came first and they have so much more to offer than garbage. Halliday wipes away all recent female rock singers-and its the voice alone that even without the great dense music would still be fantastic. One of my favs - a raw annie lennox style that is sexy-soulful-dark-pretty- any female trait is within her grasp and range. Credit must also go to garcia who played guitars-synths-programmed sounds-very talented multi-instrumentalist.(a nice mix of swirling neopsychedlic and newwave style guitars-shifting sounds and crazy shoegazer style distortion(not unlike some of u2s/ my bloody valentine-even sonic youth's work). the whole album is amazing even 10+ years later-. for newcomers buy this and pubic fruit and youve got the main meal -maybe add doppleganger for dessert! A stirring blend of indie rock electronica with an amazing sonic wall of sound. Essential 90s rock/pop!

Great use of electronics here. I first fell in love with the title track and then bought the album. Soulful singing and great music add up to a winning combination for Toni and Dean.

It is bewildering that a band like Garbage has gained such acclaim and popularity for their `unique and seminal' brand of rock music, when much before Garbage was even formed, a band named Curve had introduced to the world, the same sound, and failed to catch substantial attention of critics and the public, alike. As a matter of fact, during the time Cuckoo was released, Butch Vig from Garbage had just finished producing one of the best grunge albums of the nineties (Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dreams) after having basked under the spotlight for the gargantuan success of his earlier collaboration, with Nirvana to produce the most influential album of the nineties (Nevermind): Garbage was nowhere in sight.

In the early nineties, grunge was big. `Electronica-rock', which is `the' thing in present times, was still in the nascent stage. Such was the time, when Curve released Cuckoo. With the underground music-scene teeming with grunge bands, an Eletronica-rock album like Cuckoo was out of place, and ahead of times. What is even more unique about this band and this album is the strong female presence, in the form of Toni Halliday. With her beautiful vocals - angry yet forgiving, in the midst of loudest layered distortion and winning the battle over the synthesized melodic cacophony between which she finds herself, Toni and her band can be said as the harbinger of the `feminist-industrial' sound, which is now the style of music for a number of female-led rock bands.

Leave alone the argument of whether Curve was ahead of its time, or not. As an album, Cuckoo excels. Not in accordance with its misleading first single `Missing Link', which is probably the only `hard-rock' song of the album, the rest of Cuckoo is sophisticated, melodious and controlled. As the album progresses, it gains a more enjoyably keyboard-laden sound. The songs are beautiful, not for their aggressiveness, but for their sensitivity. The lyrics are quite smart in a lot of places. In `Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus', Toni wraps up the whole song in one line: "We won't be happy till we kill each other". Or, in "Turkey Crossing", the words, "All my traits are charming; I know you know that; they live beyond their means; you might consider that a failure; I am finished with you, please be finished with me" are sung so bluntly, giving an added lyrical effect to the textured guitar work of the song.

For its brilliant production (by the best `industrial' producer in the world, FLOOD, as always, assisted by Alan Moulder,) its smart (or even at times, smart aleck) lyrics, and its fantastic singing, Cuckoo is definitely one of the best albums of the nineties. Add to all this its germinal sound, and you get, what is called as a `must buy'.

Curve gets tossed into the "shoegazer" group alot, but they're not quite that simple. I like another reviewers term of "trance-rock". They do often rock, are sometimes dreamy, and there's also a subtle electronica through-out, on this album anyway. Toni does have a smooth sexiness to her voice that complements the music nicely. Garbage is a fair comparison, but Curve was first, is darker and less poppy, and better overall. Sometimes they're even more lush than Lush. I do have "Doppelganger" and "Come Clean", but I like "Cuckoo" the most. It's got the excellent tracks "Superblaster", "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", and the song "Cuckoo", and is just really good all the way through. All the cool kids have this one.