Come Clean (Curve album)

Come Clean
Studio album by Curve
Released	16 February 1998
Recorded	July 1996 - September 1997
Length	57:10
Label	Universal Records
Producer	Tim Simenon, Steve Osborne
Curve chronology
Cuckoo (1993) Come Clean (1998) Open Day at the Hate Fest (2001)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	link
Pitchfork Media	(7.6/10) link
Q	link
NME	4/10

Come Clean was the first album to be released by the British band Curve following their temporary split in 1994 and reformation in 1996, and their third all-new studio album in all.

Musically, the album marked a shift to a style more influenced by electronic and dance music than Curve's earlier records. Significantly, the commercial success of and critical acclaim for Come Clean (at least relative to the reception that the group's harsher and less accessible 1993 record Cuckoo had received) encouraged Curve to continue recording.

The working title for the album was, according to several interviews executed in 1996: Magic Music Medicine. In the fall of 1997 the bands American record company circulated a promo cassette titled Curve: Unmixed, Unmastered And Not Sequenced, which featured 12 of the songs from Come Clean. The tape had the tracks appearing in a different running order and some of them appeared in different versions.

Music

Chris Ott of Pitchfork noted the album's "danceable drum loops" and "blurry, detached" vocals, and its influence from trip hop band Portishead and the "ascendant club-techno" sound of The Chemical Brothers.^[1] The album forgoes the "sexual intensity" and "icey shoegaze guitars" of the band's previous albums.^[1]

Track listing

All tracks by Curve

Retail version

1. "Chinese Burn" - 4:50
2. "Coming Up Roses" - 4:33
3. "Something Familiar" - 4:07
4. "Dog Bone" - 3:13
5. "Alligators Getting Up" - 4:36
6. "Dirty High" - 5:22
7. "Killer Baby" - 3:54
8. "Sweetback" - 4:31
9. "Forgotten Sanity" - 4:33
10. "Cotton Candy" - 5:32
11. "Beyond Reach" - 4:55
12. "Come Clean" - 2:16
13. "Recovery" - 4:48

Advance tape (1997)

Curve: Unmixed, Unmastered And Not Sequenced

1. "Dirty High [rough mix]" - 5:22
2. "Forgotten Sanity" - 4:33
3. "Killer Baby" - 3:54
4. "Something Familiar" - 4:07
5. "Chinese Burn [Flood mix]" - 4:28
6. "Sweetback" - 4:31
7. "Coming Up Roses [rough mix]" - 5:02
8. "Alligators Getting Up" - 4:36
9. "Dog Bone [rough mix]" - 3:20
10. "Recovery" - 4:48
11. "Cotton Candy" - 5:32
12. "Beyond Reach" - 4:55

Personnel

• Curve – Producer
• Dean Garcia – Bass, Guitar, Drums, Programming, Engineer
• Toni Halliday – Vocals, Engineer
• Richard Harrington – Art Direction, Design
• Sally Herbert – Violin
• Ben Hillier – Engineer
• Alan Moulder – Guitar
• Darren Nash – Assistant Engineer
• Steve Osborne – Arranger, Producer
• Oskar Paul – Moog Synthesizer, Engineer
• Tom Rixton – Assistant Engineer
• Tim Simenon – Arranger, Producer
• Jason Welch – Drums

References