Doppelgänger (Curve album)

Doppelgänger
Studio album by Curve
Released 9 March 1992
Recorded July–October 1991, Todal Studios, Kilburn, London
Genre Shoegazing[1]
Length 46:15
Label Anxious Records (UK)
Charisma Records (US)
Producer Curve and Flood
Curve chronology

Doppelgänger
(1992)		 Pubic Fruit
(1992)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic link

Doppelgänger is the 1992 debut album by the British band Curve. A continuation of the musical idiom established by the group on its three earlier EPs, the record combines elements of dance music and alternative rock with the reverb- and distortion-heavy stylings of "shoegazing".

Track listing

All tracks by Dean Garcia & Toni Halliday

  1. "Already Yours" - 3:56
  2. "Horror Head" - 3:41
  3. "Wish You Dead" - 3:31
  4. "Doppelgänger" - 4:30
  5. "Lillies Dying" - 4:24
  6. "Ice That Melts the Tips" - 4:31
  7. "Split Into Fractions" - 4:33
  8. "Think and Act" - 5:15
  9. "Faît Accompli" - 4:39
  10. "Sandpit" - 3:27
  11. "Clipped" - 3:51 (US release only)

Reception

Awarding the album four out of five in Q, David Cavanagh wrote, "Every song here is swimming in guitars – mashed, chewed, flanged, compressed, squally, howling, whatever. But no matter how cacophonous the music gets (and 'Ice That Melts the Tips' sounds as though three guitars are beating the crap out of a fourth), Halliday's voice is terrifically sensual and seductive, sounding just the pretty side of evil. As keen subscribers to the interpret-how-thou-wilt school of lyric writing, Curve's possible grievances are most addressed using drums and guitars: 'Faît Accompli', the new single, is a singalonga-schizoid affair, tuneful but menacing; 'Think and Act' has a touch of 'Where the Streets Have No Name' guitars, but it's way tougher. Variations in mood are slight – a little slowing down for 'Lillies Dying'; some Indian sampling for 'Horror Head' – until the final song, a cold, grey ballad called 'Sandpit' that only adds to Doppelgänger's shopping list of unexplained treats."[2]

Musician said: "Curve's thick, psychedelic throb crosses the electrobeat aggression of Front 242 with the blurred guitar drone of Lush, an approach that allows the band the advantages of both styles without becoming openly in thrall to either. And it sounds just fine, in part because of the care with which Dean Garcia tends his soundscapes, and mostly because of the way Toni Halliday's cool, throaty vocals snake melody through the thick-swirling grooves. A singularly entrancing album."[3]

In their end-of-year round-up issue, Q said, "Doppelgänger delighted with its thrashy guitar sounds, bone-rattling drum tattoos and cool, poised vocal performances."[4] Q featured it again in a feature on "goth" albums: "A thundering, subtly melodic debut drowned out the critics and, though it was all over two years later, the multimillion-selling Garbage had certainly learned something."[5]

Chart performance

The album peaked at number 11 on the UK Albums Chart.

Personnel

External links

References

  1. ↑ McDonald, Andrew (11 September 2013). "This Is Not Your Bloody Valentine: 10 Essential Non-‘Loveless’ Shoegaze Albums". PopMatters. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Q, April 1992
  3. ↑ Musician, May 1992
  4. ↑ Q, February 1993
  5. ↑ Q, December 1999