The album art of the new Curious Things LP Naif is not subtle. Curious Things? Naif? Sticking a fork in an electrical outlet! I worried that the art was a tongue-in-cheek metaphor for the quality of the LP, perhaps a case of self-deprecation. Fortunately, Naif doesn’t make want me to electrocute myself neither literally nor figuratively. Rather, I find the record to be electrifying.
Curious Things (Denver) consists of guitar pop/punk veterans Cameron Hawk (The Gamits, Lawsuit Models, The Dead Girls, Bandaid Brigade etc), Forrest Bartosh (The Gamits, Bud Bronson and the Good Timers, Pinhead Circus), and Ryan Heller (Tuff Bluff, Lawsuit Models). The three-piece plays crisp and powerful power pop that has its roots in ’90s pop punk and alt pop rather than in the late ’70s pop punk successors or the ’80s skinny tie movement. It’s an energetic sound that’s super poppy, and transcended by the amazing vocals of Cameron Hawk. Naif has a familiar sound that invites a pleasant sense of nostalgia and escapes the dreaded longing for the glory days. I kinda like that feeling – the new Samiam record evokes a similar response.
Naif is out now on LP that is co-released by Snappy Little Numbers and Dumb Ghost Recording Enterprises.
Pingback: New album: Tuff Bluff || Tuff Bluff - Add To Wantlist