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

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band Our Lady Peace (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's home recording studio. ''Curves first single, "

Heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

", 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 ''Spiritual Machines'' is the fourth studio album by the Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace, released by Columbia Records in December 2000. Although not initially intended, the project evolved into a conceptual interpretation of futur ...

''.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, 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

Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocea ...

. This is the last album to feature drummer Jeremy Taggart, who left the band in June 2014. The time between ''Curves release and the band's 2018 album ''

Somethingness ''Somethingness'' is the ninth studio album by Canadian alternative rock band Our Lady Peace (OLP). Produced under Warner Music Records label by Jason Lader, who also produced their preceding album ''Curve'', this is the band's first studio albu ...

'' 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''.Our Lady Peace Preparing New Album
– ''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 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 trademarks, coordinates the produc ...

. Fans were provided with unprecedented

live footage Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

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

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 from a friend of the band's, Jason Lader, 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