Cuckoo

AMG Review of Cuckoo

Tom Demalon
All Music Guide

Curve's second record finds more midtempo songs and a more electronic feel, although producer Flood still manages to bring out the band's dense sonic tendencies. While the music on Cuckoo is less aggressive than on Doppelganger, singer Toni Halliday's lyrics are well defined and still pack a punch. Often playing the woman spurned but not broken, Halliday takes no quarter. On "Super Blaster" she warns a companion not to start anything that they can't finish and she reads an ex-lover the riot act on "Left of Mother." The music shows more diversity, with a bit of funk injected into the guitars on "Crystal," while "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" is a hypnotic midtempo march. The album closes with the achingly confessional title cut, with Halliday showing a rare sense of vulnerability that is quite effective. Not as immediate as their earlier material and not quite as fulfilling, Cuckoo nonetheless will please longtime fans and is a solid introduction for potential converts.