''Curve'' is the eighth studio album by Canadian

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Our Lady Peace Our Lady Peace (sometimes shortened to OLP) is a Canadian alternative rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Led by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band currently also features Duncan Coutts on bass, Steve Mazur on guit ...

(OLP), released on April 3, 2012.Our Lady Peace still rewriting their history
– ''National Post''. Retrieved April 3, 2012. The album was recorded from 2010 through 2012 at vocalist

Raine Maida Raine Maida ( ; born Michael Anthony Maida; February 18, 1970) – Ourladypeace.cc. Retrieved April 30, 2010. is a Canadian musician best known as being the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the alternative rock band Our Lady Peace. He ha ...

's home recording studio. ''Curves first and only single, "

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", was released on December 20, 2011. The music from ''Curve'' has been touted by lead singer Maida as being "more experimental and ambitious" than the band's 2000

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

'' Spiritual Machines''.Our Lady Peace bringing new tunes and renewed energy to Tecumseh's Cornfest
– ''Windsorite.ca''. July 18, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2012. The album's cover features Canadian heavyweight boxer

George Chuvalo George Louis Chuvalo (born September 12, 1937, as Jure Čuvalo) is a Canadian former professional boxer who was a five-time Canadian heavyweight champion and two-time world heavyweight title challenger. He is known for having never been knocked ...

, whose vocal excerpts are featured in the album's tenth and final track "Mettle".TRT Interviews: Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace
– ''The Round Table''. February 6, 2012. Retrieved February 13, 2012. The album debuted at No. 9 on the

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. This is the last album to feature the ''

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''-era lineup, with drummer

Jeremy Taggart Jeremy Ronald John Taggart (born April 7, 1975) is a Canadian drummer, radio host, and author, best known for playing with Our Lady Peace from 1993 until 2014. Early life Taggart was born in Toronto, Ontario, later growing up in Mansfield, Ont ...

leaving the band in June 2014. The time between ''Curves release and the band's 2018 album '' Somethingness'' marked the longest gap between Our Lady Peace studio albums to date, at nearly 6 years.

Development

The band began recording ''Curve'' about six months after the release of their seventh studio album, '' Burn Burn''. – ''ChartAttack''. December 9, 2009. Retrieved January 19, 2012. As with ''Burn Burn'', the album was recorded at Raine Maida's studio in Los Angeles and is not attached to a

major record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

. Fans were provided with unprecedented live footage of the band recording the album via

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throughout early to mid-2011. Band members also provided live updates on the progress of the album, including song titles and lyrics, via

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and

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Artistic direction

''Curve'''s artistic direction was inspired by the band's 2010 '' Clumsy'' and ''Spiritual Machines'' tour, – ''Montreal Gazette''. Canwest Publishing, Inc. 2010. Archived version retrieved December 15, 2011. as well as by

constructive criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the ...

from a friend of the band's,

Jason Lader Jason Lader is an American record producer, audio engineer, and mixer from New York. He is also known for playing bass guitar, keyboards, piano, guitar, and as a programmer. He was a member of the band Furslide, and has since worked with Howard ...

, who later became producer of the album. When Lader was shown some early working material from the album, he criticized it, saying "why don't you make a record that ''you'' would listen to?".Raine says new Our Lady Peace album “sets up the next ten years for us”
– ''Exploremusic.com''. December 26, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2012. This prompted the band to scrap all of the material they'd written and recorded up to that point, and to start over fresh. The band has stated that they pushed the creative boundaries as much as possible with ''Curves music. In a late 2011 interview, lead singer Maida was quoted as saying, "when we look back at what we respect about what we've done, whether it's things from '' Naveed'' or things from ''Spiritual Machines'', it's tapping into those feelings and trying to find that place again where we exist as artists, and the record really goes deep into those spaces, so it's getting back to what I think the best parts of this band are." He added, "I think people are gonna be pretty surprised where this record goes".

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 49 (based on four reviews) indicating the reception of the album has been 'mixed'.

Track listing

The official track list was revealed through ''Curves entry on Amazon.com in March 2012.Curve: Amazon.ca: Music
– ''Amazon''. Retrieved March 5, 2012.

References

{{Authority control 2012 albums Our Lady Peace albums Self-released albums Albums produced by Raine Maida