CD: The Curtains, "Calamity"

Chris Cohen grew up singing as much as he did playing; thank goodness for it. His three-piece band, The Curtains, benefits from the quiet precociousness of his early dabbling; their new album, Calamity is delightfully experimental lo-fi. A less-than-whiny falsetto and a syncopated chorus dress up the playfulness of the songs; the guitar can throttle notes on "Green Water," it can pluck notes like chicken feathers on "Wysteria," and it can also indulge in rockabilly-lite on the instrumental "Brunswick Stew." On some tracks, like "World's Most Dangerous Woman," Cohen can even pass as a small-scale Sufjan Stevens. "Calamity" molds a disastrous series of notes into the melody, and while some people will inevitably ask what Chris is doing, the answer is clear. He's making music; the hell with rules.

[First posted to Silent Uproar, 3/6]