First albums are often a jumping point. They can be a sign of what is to come and be a little rough around the edges. Not so with Curse the Weather from Mo Lowda and the Humble. This is their first full length release and it comes fully formed and utterly polished.
Identity can be an important part of a band's development. It seems Mo Lowda and the Humble have eschewed that in order to express more in the songs themselves. This diversity of style let's them branch out and find spaces that specific genre selection might hinder. This album shows them stretching a bit and finding those spaces. Production-wise, this is a decent album. It would be nice to hear the bass guitar and low-end a little more up front. The vocals and lead guitar are generally in the forefront. Even with this, the album as a whole is still a wonderful patchwork of songs that form a whole.
One of the big stands out with this album are the use of normally neglected instruments, such as the flute and saxophone back and forth play heard on "Where the Whitetails Go". But they also manage to kick around genres and play it all capably. Mo Lowda and the Humble can alt-rock it out ("Lost in You"), play something a bit more straight rock ("The Way Home"), or put something similar to a dark pop song out ("Curse the Weather"). Usually jumping around like this would be a distraction or a gimmick, but here the songs seem to coalesce to form a loose narrative that invites more innovation and more break outs.
If this is just a first full-length, this is a band that will likely skip the "sophomore curse" and we'll see a brilliant second effort when the time comes.
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