Album #151: Future of the Left - Curses

Future of the Left

Curses (2007)

Future of the Left were formed out of the ashes of two Welsh bands, Mclusky and Jarcrew, in 2005. Both groups had garnered passionate fanbases, albeit in a slightly underground way, and in the band's early days this proved a burden. In fact, their early gigs were played under code names, to ensure that hardcore Mclusky and Jarcrew fans didn't turn up expecting to hear the old tunes played the same way.

It took just shy of two years before FotL - at that time a threepiece consisting of Andy Falkous (guitar/keys/vocals), Jack Egglestone (drums) and Kelson Mathias (bass/vocals) - released their debut album, Curses. Anticipation was high amongst Welsh music fans for the first music from this supergroup, and apparently those fans were not disappointed.

Time for me to find out for myself.

The Album

It's a bloody firey album, that's for sure. Curses burns with energy, power, aggression and verve. At times it's hard to believe that the group are a three-piece, such is the raw power and thickness of their sound. To the band's credit, they adopt a real punk attitude to song length; keep them short, rock out as hard as you can, and get out before the audience gets bored or exhausted (or both). 

When it's good, it's really, really good, combining post-hardcore rhythmic elements and song structures with the 'fuck-you' attitude of punk rock and, at times, the more melodic approach of alternative rock. The lyrics are, for the most part, rather clever, sometimes dryly observant, while at other times they're quite funny.

Highlights of the album? There are a few. Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood lulls you in with its pseudo-country music vocalised pastiche, before buzzsaw guitars, cavernous riffs and Falkous' high-pitched bark punch you in the gut and stomp on your face. Plague of Onces has much the same feeling, albeit with a structural callback to At the Drive-In, while the brilliant Fingers Become Thumbs packs more punch than Floyd Mayweather, sounding utterly filthy yet dynamically superb at the same time (never before have the lines "We're not alive, we're not alive/we're not at home for preg-er-nant callers" been so fucking chantable before).

The group also excel at the sudden musical sucker punch. On several occasions, they create a sense of comfort through repetition, before slotting in an unexpected section to jolt you out of your comfort zone. Opener The Lord Hates A Coward drives along with scuzzy guitars and energetic drumming, before kicking into a frenetically dynamic closing thirty seconds. Kept By Bees is almost entirely drums and vocals - cavernous, booming drums and vocals - except for a sizzling fifteen second blast of guitars. This also overlooks the pirates-chanting-like-Peter Gabriel sections...it's a very different, way-out-there tune. 

At other times, Future of the Left are content to pull whole musical surprises. The catchy Manchasm has no traces of guitars at all - instead it's left to Falkous' falsetto and some catchy keyboards to do the heavy lifting. It's the only time on the album that you get the feeling that the group have crafted a song to dance to. The mildly sarcastic Fuck The Countryside Alliance is an ode to minimalist simplicity - a plodding drumbeat, a repetitive two note guitar motif and dry vocals (though it contains another favourite lyric of mine - "Take a man to his nightmares in a Land Rover" - which describes the CA rather well). Finally, closing track The Contrarian is that in more ways than one - after thirteen tracks of pulsating scuzz rock, the album closes with a piano ballad (yep, you read that correctly). It comes out of nowhere and yet it's the perfect way to conclude an album that shows no end of experimental flair.

The Verdict

Curses is quite a decent debut album. It's not necessarily a style of music I love, but there's so many shifts in dynamics, so many little touches and surprises, that you can't help but enjoy the album. It's worth checking out, as are Future of the Left in general.

My rating: 7.6/10

Standout Tracks

Fuck the Countryside Alliance

Fingers Become Thumbs

Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood