Attack in Black
The Curve of the Earth (2007)
Piata
Let's get one thing out of the way: Anyone looking for the direct followup to Marriage will not find it on The Curve of the Earth. This album feels more like a creative tangent focusing on the "folk" aspects of Attack in Black, rather than the punk, and they pull it off admirably.
The album opens with "I'm Going to Forget," likely one of the most accessible songs and also setting the tone for the entire record. Every song with the exception of "You're Such an Only Child" stays in a low-key, quasi-acoustic vein. While this makes "You're Such an Only Child" stick out like a sore thumb, it's short and serves as a great way to break up the album, plus gives fans of Marriage a little something more upbeat to carry them over to the second side. It's also worth noting that there appears to be a couple tracks with reversed messages and I haven't had time to play them backwards, but it's nice to see Attack in Black going for every last detail.
One of the biggest problems with albums like this is that they can typically become monotonous as they progress, each additional song sounding more and more like the last. Thankfully Attack in Black have completely avoided this pitfall by never really repeating the same pattern twice. Vocal duties are split up between the entire band and no two songs have the same instrumentation. There's a lot of variety here in a minimalist sort of way and it somehow manages to stay cohesive for the most part. The recording itself is sharp and crisp, but also has that laid-back rough polish to it that really shines and gives every song an almost timeless feel.
In short, this is the kind of album you put on during a lazy Sunday morning and watch the snow fall from your armchair. It's not going to rock your world, but it will make you reflect on it.