Come Clean (Curve album) explained

Come Clean
Type:studio
Artist:Curve
Cover:Come Clean.jpg
Border:yes
Recorded:July 1996 – September 1997
Studio:Todal (London)
Genre:Electronic rock
Prev Title:Cuckoo
Prev Year:1993
Next Title:Open Day at the Hate Fest
Next Year:2001

Come Clean is the third studio album by English alternative rock band Curve. It was released on 10 March 1998 by Estupendo Records and Universal, and was the first Curve album to be released following their temporary split in 1994 and reformation in 1996.

Come Clean marked a shift to a style more informed by dance and electronic music than Curve's earlier records. Significantly, the commercial success of and critical acclaim for Come Clean – at least relative to the reception that the group's harsher and less accessible 1993 album Cuckoo had received – encouraged Curve to continue recording.

Musical style

Stuart Derdeyn of The Province wrote that Come Clean found Curve "updating its sound to better reflect the noise and punch of contemporary electronic rock".[1] The A.V. Clubs Joshua Klein said that the band expanded on the dance and electronic elements of their previous albums, with the music on Come Clean placing a heavier emphasis on "big beats".[2] Pitchfork critic Chris Ott noted the album's "danceable drum loops" and "blurry, detached" vocals, as well as its influence from trip hop band Portishead and the "ascendant club-techno" sound of The Chemical Brothers.[3] According to Ott, the record forgoes the "sexual intensity" and "icy shoegaze guitars" of Curve's earlier work.[3]

Release

After disbanding two years earlier, Curve reformed in 1996 and within the year announced the forthcoming release of a new album, which was tentatively titled Magic Music Medicine and set to be issued by the band's self-operated label FatLip Recordings.[4] In 1997, Curve signed to Universal, which ultimately issued the album, newly titled Come Clean.[5]

Come Clean was released by Estupendo Records and its parent label Universal on 10 March 1998 in the United States,[6] and on 18 May 1998 in the United Kingdom.[7] The lead single from Come Clean, "Chinese Burn", was released on 18 November 1997.[8] "Coming Up Roses" was issued as the album's second single on 4 May 1998.[9]

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[10]

Curve

Additional musicians

Production

Design

Notes and References

  1. News: Derdeyn. Stuart. Friday offers slice of the Bacons. The Province. 25 June 1998.
  2. Web site: Klein. Joshua. Curve: Come Clean. The A.V. Club. 19 April 2002. 5 May 2021.
  3. Web site: Ott. Chris. Castoffs and Cutouts: The Top 50 Most Common Used CDs. Pitchfork. September 2003. 5 May 2021. 3. https://web.archive.org/web/20031002021632/http://pitchforkmedia.com/features/castoffs-and-cutouts/index3.shtml. 2 October 2003. dead.
  4. Curve's Full Circle. NME. 17 August 1996. 5 May 2021.
  5. Lanham. Tom. Curve: Reunited and It Feels So Good. CMJ New Music Monthly. 55. March 1998. 5 May 2021. 24–25.
  6. Roberts. Randall. Curve: Come Clean. CMJ New Music Monthly. 56. April 1998. 5 May 2021. 48.
  7. Come Clean. 5 May 2021. https://archive.today/20210505073442/https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/vl8AAOSw5vJfEqFC/s-l1600.jpg. 5 May 2021. unfit. Estupendo Records / Universal. 1998. press advertisement.
  8. News: Other discs scheduled for release Tuesday. Detroit Free Press. 16 November 1997.
  9. Coming Up Roses. 5 May 2021. https://archive.today/20210505085325/https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/zMEAAOSw5yVforb~/s-l1600.jpg. 5 May 2021. unfit. Estupendo Records / Universal. 1998. press advertisement.
  10. Come Clean. Curve. Estupendo Records / Universal. 1998. UD-53121. liner notes.