CURLY SOUNDS

I've accidentally stumbled upon this album while browsing through a few songs by Jahn Teigen on Spotify. It was quite a surprise to find Curly Sounds there considering that I've never seen this album anywhere else so, even though I wasn't expecting much, I almost felt obliged to give it a few spins!

I'll be honest with you, this album is nowhere near as exciting as any of the three previous records but I wouldn't necessary call it terrible either. It's pretty obvious that the times were changing and the band tried to reinvent their sound after their previous vocalist, Jahn Teigen, had left for a successful solo carrier. What we have here is a mix of disco, pop and blues tracks that aren't exactly all that interesting but the great musicianship of the four instrumentalists in the band actually made it a decent spin for me. The new vocalist, Asbjørn Krogtoft, doesn't bring the same mighty personality nor vocal performance to the band as Jahn Teigen did in the past, but his effort is actually rather pleasant at times. The biggest problem with the album is its complete lack of direction with the band trying pretty much everything to reinvent themselves while leaving their glorious symphonic approach behind them.

If I had to pick any favorite track then it would be the ballad Love's Last Ballad, which is as close as the band comes to their glory days of All We Have Is The Past, Between You And Me and Sweet Tune. Mountain Man is probably the best example of the band succeeding in making their new direction work for themselves and I've honestly would have liked to hear a few more quirky tunes like this instead disco tunes like Tango For One. Overall, I can still imagine that fans of Popol Ace would find this release interesting even if just for the reason to brag that they have the record in their collection. Curly Sounds is nowhere near the first three Popol Ace albums and its complete lack of success brought the band's story to an abrupt closure. I would definitely recommend to start with their debut album or Stolen From Time if your not too familiar with the band's repertoire.

**** star songs: Bye Bye (4:35) Love's Last Ballad (4:09) Mountain Man (3:53)

*** star songs: Tango For One (4:13) Jay (4:03) Joe's My Name (4:02) California USA (4:55) Let The Music Turn You On (3:50) Northern Winds (3:49) Wonderland (4:45)