I've written about Attack in Black before but I'm saving a huge rave about them for when I find a copy of Marriage on vinyl (turns out that only 500 copies were printed, making me even more of a fool for not getting one at that Far gig. A further 549 copies appeared in Canada for Record Store Day 2012, but I only just found out about this. I will get a copy someday).
Curve of the Earth came out sometime after Marriage and was the result of the band sitting and writing for two days. Apparently they hadn't planned to release the recordings, but must have liked them enough to do so. The songs here couldn't be more different to the band I saw supporting Far in TJ's or from the band that wrote Marriage, but they somehow are. Marriage was a great punk record and their first EP is basically hardcore, but Curve of the Earth, and their final album Years are folky-country. I was still loving Marriage when this album was announced so I ordered a copy to be shipped over from Dine Alone Records in Canada. Only 1000 copies were pressed and I didn't want to miss out. Two bad things happened: the sleeve got quite battered in transit from Canada (which is annoying, because it's pretty easy to protect a record sleeve if you try hard enough) and secondly, I ended up going to Canada a few months later and found a bunch of copies in record stores for less than half what I paid. The Canada trip was on the cards when I bought it, but I figured it wouldn't be so easy to find it in shops (even more annoyingly, the band were touring Canada when I was there, but we were consistently in different cities so I couldn't see them).
The songs here are nice, but not in the slightest what I was expecting. If I listen to it now and forget my expectations, it's a perfectly enjoyable record. With the exception of Sounds of Dawn and Dusk, most of the songs don't feel very finished, but I suppose that's part of the charm of the way the album was recorded. I'm Going to Forget and Ever Bright, Ever Blue are highlights, but the fuzzy You're Such an Only Child is my favourite probably because it hints at the Attack in Black I first heard.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £19.50 new
Bought: Dine Alone Records
When: 14/02/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: download card
