Scottish rock bands that opt for melody over architecture often have a hard time when they start out.
Debut albums from Twin Atlantic and Biffy Clyro didn’t exactly win all the critics over. That’s not a problem if you have enough music industry support and, with hard work, build up a fanbase. For bands doing everything themselves it can be extremely difficult to do likewise while holding down dayjobs. Reaching more people requires negotiating obstacles that require time and money, and local circuit bands in Scotland usually don’t have much of either.
With all that in mind, I’m sure Curators would like to say, ‘Fuck You Because We Love BIG Choruses.’ There’s no record label here aiming to hit a sales figure, or an international booking agency calculating the potential arena ticket sales. It is what it is. Curators are pop as fuck. OK, hipster?
That Awkward Bit Where The Writer Namechecks More Bands
Have you ever listened to MUSE or JIMMY EAT WORLD and wondered what they’d sound like if they were Scottish and, in Muse’s case, reigned it in a bit? Toned down the not-very-interesting-prog bits (I’m currently watching Ulysses 31 so clearly I’m a self-appointed expert on weird prog rock this week) and kept the amps rocking straight ahead.
That’s what Edinburgh band Curators put me in mind of on their first album. Or Donegal band Berkeley. Or credible power-pop. Such a thing does exist.
Around the release of Curators’ first album, petpiranha.com did a piece on it but it’s been lost in various site deletions, such was my unhappiness with previous incarations of this blog. Essentially I recommended people gave it a chance despite it not sounding like Codeine, or a twee tartan jumper eating shortbread and washing it down with Tennent’s. And that’s even though I wasn’t overly keen on the production on it. I let that one slide.
With the second record having just been released, the band have decided to make the first one a free download.
FREE DOWNLOAD – ‘IS THIS A PRIVATE FIGHT?’ BY CURATORS
It’s free so I recommend you download it, give it a listen and see if it’s worthy of a long-term place on your hard drive. I did mention a second record so let’s discuss that briefly. The Scottish assault on the charts from Admiral Fallow, The Twilight Sad, and Frightened Rabbit have possibly influenced Curators’ “The Cold in the Walls”. It’s certainly closer to Scottish indie rock alumni than American influences, but it’s still pop as fuck. Not One Direction pop, more like Idlewild without Bob on bass pop.
Opener ‘Sunk’ would not sound out of place on ‘Make Another World’ if Idlewild had gone the whole hog and accepted that they were opening for bands like Pearl Jam and Coldplay.
I’m sure there was a point in there somewhere in that last paragraph. Some records grow on you, maybe that was it.
Fuck it, that’ll do. Game of Thrones is on soon. Go listen to the second record here. If you let it in you might just find something you weren’t expecting. I wasn’t expecting ‘Sunk’ to get four plays in a row while writing this.
