Curse

by Scott Hefflon

“Tattooed Rain” and “Graveyard Shuffle” were the first songs I heard by NYC’s Curse, and they just don’t reflect what the rest of the CD is about… The former is slighty dark bar rock, the latter a fun, honky-tonk swagger (think Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” [it was in Blues Brothers, if that helps, kids]), but what Curse do best is dark, brooding, mythical rock. Slow to mid-tempos, with Mikaela’s voice hovering and dangling, then soaring away, to pause and tease until you catch up again… Lyrical themes such as New Orleans voodoo, and the myths of Dionysus, Orpheus, and Isis lend to that dark image as well. The more upbeat stuff, to be honest, just sounds like a bar band with a strong female singer. Then again, I’m attracted to the dark, the faint flicker of candlelight, the shadows dancing on the walls, the way candlelight can make the room look vaguely unfamilar, a lover’s features contort, look ghoulish, voluptuous, and then familiar again before you can blink. Produced by Wharton Tiers – who’s worked with Sonic Youth, Swans, Helmet, and Nick Cave – Curse have all the right elements, they just need to move by candlelight.
(www.curseonline.com)