Love & Curses

Reigning Sound | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 11, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: In the Red Records
• ASIN: B002D6EXSO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,031 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

It's been five years since Greg Cartwright's Reigning Sound dropped their last full-length studio album, Too Much Guitar. Not that Cartwright has been resting on his laurels. The Reigning Sound backed Shangri-La Mary Weiss on her critically acclaimed comeback album, Dangerous Game, which was produced and largely written by Cartwright. The band performed with Weiss on tour, including an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Cartwright also produced, penned songs for, and played in The Detroit Cobras for a spell. All the while, the Reigning Sound toured the US on and off and released a couple of live albums, yet never managed to get into the studio to record. All the while, Cartwright stockpiled loads of new tunes. Finally, late last year, the band entered Ardent Studios in Memphis and laid down a bunch of songs. Some months later, they went into Echo Mountain Studios in North Carolina and recorded a bunch more. In the end, the band had more than enough for two albums, and carefully whittled it down to the cream of the musical crop.
Love and Curses (title comes from Memphis TV horror host Sivad) is a return to the sound and style of the Reigning Sound's incredible Time Bomb High School. The band once again features a full-time keyboardist, Dave Amels, and has jettisoned the lo-fi approach used on Too Much Guitar in favor of a bigger, warmer studio sound. As with Time Bomb High School, Love and Curses strikes a balance between soulful rockers and beautiful ballads. The results are a rock 'n' roll album as near to perfection as any one is likely to hear this year. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reigning Sound - indeed, August 13, 2009

By 

bdub383 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love & Curses (Audio CD)

These guys are already the undisputed kings of the garage. It's a dark garage full of heartfelt, scratchy r&b, soul, psych-pop, rock'n'roll and punk 45's. This album took awhile but it doesn't disappoint at all. No lemons or throw away tunes. The tunes run the full gamut of RS's previous efforts (power-pop/punk bashers, dark brooding ballads, R&B ravers)
Greg Cartwright is probably the only feller on earth that can write and sing songs that are filled with the darkest melancholy and lovesick pain and not sound the slightest bit sappy. His voice is a unique gift/weapon.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sounds Reign Supreme!, October 22, 2009

By 

Alan Hutchins (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love & Curses (Audio CD)

Love and Curses may be the Reigning Sound's finest studio achievement to date. Prior releases such as Time Bomb High School or Too Much Guitar contain many fine songs and moments, but don't hold together as well as a "whole album" (all 14 songs in 37 minutes of it) as this one.

Greg Cartwright and his ferocious band can tear it up mightily, as demonstrated here on such cardio-workout, garage-rock ravers as "Call Me", "If I Can't Come Back", "Stick Up For Me" (featuring, count `em, just three chords) and "Debris". They don't just melt the speaker cones here, though. They spend a fair amount of time in mid-tempo/quieter territory in such songs as "Something To Hold Onto", "Love Won't Leave You A Song", or "Polly Anne". There's even a genre-bending closer, "Banker And A Liar", that throws a dash of Tom Waits, a generous helping of Dylanesque lyrics and a dollop of the eastern European territory covered by Devotchka into a blender together.

Though Mr. Cartwright is not doing an impression of Bruce Springsteen, the shouted, Boss-like vocal inflections and the spirit of Bruce's rave-up songwriting circa 1979 seem to manifest themselves a few times, as on prior releases as well. Here, if you squint a bit, you may be able to hear songs like the opener, "Brake It" and "The Bells" as outtakes from The River. No wonder Little Steven likes this band so much.

This release is living proof that straight-up, well-crafted, retro-influenced-but-not-just-rehashed-oldies, actual Rock-n-Roll(or maybe Garage Rock)played by humans and sung without pitch correction technology is still alive and thrashing out there somewhere, even if you have to look far beyond the major label mainstream to find it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite album of 2009, January 4, 2010

By 

Benjamin Hirsch - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love & Curses (Audio CD)

This is a wonderful album. As a huge music fan who is easily bored and jaded, it takes a lot for an album to totally blow me away. I have been listening to this album pretty much constantly since I picked it up. It's soooooo good!