Shoegazer Sunday: Curve’s “No Escape From Heaven”

The thing about Curve’s “No Escape From Heaven” that strikes me as I listen to it now is just how much it sounds like 1991. There was a huge amount of change going on that year, both grunge (Nirvana, Pearl Jam) and otherwise (Slowdive, Tori Amos), but there was a particular style of female lead vocals that featured bright, upbeat, autoharmonized choruses with a lush, vibrant, full sound, as though all the girl groups of the 1980s (Go Gos, Bananarama, etc.) were distilled into their essence, with an assist from the very latest recording technology. You could hear it everywhere, including bands people have completely forgotten about. (When is the last time you heard Voice of the Beehive on the radio?) Even though this is definitely Shoegaze, you can still hear the same tonalities to it.