No Guitar is the third studio album and is the result of 9 years of development for the band in their journey towards greater complexity and eclecticism.

While the first album was more straightforward and striking with alternative rock with influences from bands like Number Girl, Definitive Band contained elements of jangle pop and a little bit of shoegaze – No Guitar squares all the previous works, making the songs much more impressionistic and imposing, at the same time moving away from the lo-fi trace that is common in their last two works, making the story really unpredictable and exciting. From the very beginning of Curling as a project in 2014, when its members literally started writing music during school breaks, their Midwest emo-influenced style became unpredictable and detailed, although the group preferred a more direct and heavy alternative rock genre.

On No Guitar, a palette of genres and styles is combined with the intricacy and complexity of song structures. Tracks change direction so many times in a standard length that it can even turn your head. The long period of making the record, interrupted by the COVID pandemic (I wonder how much longer the musicians will deal with the consequences of this in their work), the change of drummer, and events in the personal lives of the musicians added a variety of moods to the material, such as the tragedy in “Hotel”, folk daydreaming in “Pop Song” (2:02 long, by the way, Blur reference?) or power pop in the style of Elastica or Garbage in “Hi-Elixir” and “Patience”. There is no directness here even in tempo, like on “Husk” when the phrase can end at any time and the time signatures become liquid, as if in “Clair de la Lune”. And as a result, the rollercoaster ends with a high-frequency and electrified outro of “No Guitar”, where, nevertheless, it was not without guitars. But still there is a clear feeling of an open finale, as if after all the ups and downs the road ends and you are left alone with your feelings after this amazing trip, full of impressions.

And although at the moment, a Google search for “curling band” will show you pictures of women literally curling their hair – it means absolutely nothing, because it doesn’t stop the band from stuffing their 34-minute album with a lot of interesting ideas and personal progress to be proud of.

Order No Guitar HERE.