Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Prog, Artpop/Pop | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 162 / 7-8-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 7.5/10 | Label: Cherry Red | Autor: MaB
Curved Air are among the longest serving British prog bands, but they never made it into the first league. Although their LPs "Air Conditioning", "Second Album" and "Phantasmagoria" landed in the top 20 of the British charts, and with the single "Back Street Luv" they even managed a single hit in 1971. But after that the band couldn't continue this success anymore. She disbanded in 1976. In 1990 there was a unique reunion concert in London. In 2008 Curved Air found a new line-up and released the CDs "Reborn", "Retrospective" and "Live Atmosphere". Violinist Darryl Way is now walking solo (see also the review of his new CD in this issue), but his former colleagues didn't let it get them down and hired Paul Sax, a talented replacement. "North Star" offers fourteen tracks, among them three remakes, a new recording of Sonja Kristina's song "Young Mother" as well as covers of the Beatles, The Police and Snow Patrol, which were sometimes more ("Chasing Cars", "Across The Universe"), sometimes less ("Spirits In The Material World"). The actual listeners, however, are the seven new compositions, which don't necessarily sound contemporary, but instead evoke memories of better curved air times. With the rock opener "Stay Human" the band shows that they still have a lot of energy at their disposal, even if the production is a bit narrow-chested and the vocally aged Sonja Kristina misses the target several times. It gets really gripping with the progging songs "Time Games", "Images And Signs" and "Spider", in which Curved Air present themselves in dazzling condition.
Top Track: Time Games
