Ventura five-piece Curtsy make a startling first impression on their debut full-length album Something I Can’t Control, with songs and vocals that come alive with resplendent assurance. Featuring walloping single "Run Cold", the slickly-produced effort marries ringing guitar arrangements with a spiraling array of keyboard effects, giving the album’s overall sound a stark luminosity.
The band does carry a strong post-shoegaze influence, but only in spirit, as they prefer to construct gentle soundscapes that waft beneath a powerful anthemic thrust. Not to mention that they fully embrace clarity over dissonance, carefully considering each and every element they introduce as if detailing a floral portrait with a fine paint brush. Vocalists Crystal Napoles and Austin Knecht compliment each other with careful precision, carefully considering every verse with a harmonic naturality reminiscent of turn-of-the-century darlings Stars during their guitar pop phase. It proves that though they openly doubt their instinctual urges, the band couldn’t be any more in control of their songcraft. – Juan Rodriguez
Something I Can’t Control is out now on all digital outlets.