Justin Currie’s voice is like that acquaintance you run into, but can’t quite place. Yet when you remember where you know him from, the memories come flooding back, and you wonder where the hell he’s been this whole time.
Well, not so much for me — I was raised on his catalogue since the days of the cassette tape — but for everyone I meet, it’s the same: “Who is that?” But all it takes is a click, and they crack out a smile and sing along.
The man is Justin Currie, former frontman of Del Amitri, otherwise known as the band responsible for a notable bit of our ’90s nostalgia: “Roll to Me.” It was the only song in the U.S. that really made it on the charts, an achievement that is both a success and a misstep — how are you supposed to feel when everyone knows your name for a song that’s just average pop fluff? The other gems found on Twisted, as well as their following album, Some Other Sucker’s Parade, went largely unnoticed. (Unless you’re a fan of “Scrubs,” in which case you’ve most likely heard “Tell Her This.”)
After the success of “Roll to Me,” the group did some touring, released a few more albums and then, just like a slew of great bands before them, faded away.
But that didn’t stop Currie, by any means. He created a side project called The Uncle Devil Show with two fellow Scots, but did so under the name Jason Barr — and when the album debuted, he vehemently denied the relation. Then, in 2007 Currie released his first solo album, What is Love For, a dark, brooding album all about the wrongs of love and the world in general.
Thus is the career of Justin Currie: A little self-indulgent, but he doesn’t waste his time. And now we have his second solo album, The Great War, which is essentially the hybrid of his days with Del Amitri and the dark cynicism of What is Love For.
The beauty of The Great War is, as its title implies, its antagonistic attitude. Be the song a dark ballad or pop song with a seemingly sunny disposition, the edge of cynicism always finds a way to cut through. Such is the case in “You Will Always Walk Alone,” in which he speaks of exactly that — knowing that no one can save you from the inevitable. But it’s so damn soothing that you’ve got to be perfectly okay with it.
Fans and new listeners alike are sure to fall for the album’s most accessible track,
“Can’t Let Her Go,” which marks the closest return to Del Amitri’s pop rock glory. Although the song is about love, it’s Currie’s version of love, meaning it’s a stubborn thing that affects him more than he’s willing to admit: “Just don’t tell her I would die if I let her slip away/ Let her think I’m resigned/ Like those drying clothes just hang onto the line.”
In “The Fight to Be Human,” however, we land somewhere else entirely. In a little more than eight minutes, we witness the heart of the war the album is titled after — and learn maybe it’s not worth the pain and effort of fighting. Opening with a slow, persistent piano, it picks up in earnest with increasingly strong vocals, a chorus of “I hate the world they gave me” and harsh lyrics that speak to the inhumanity of the world we live in: “Debt and disease they prey on my mind/ And after they leave me I drink ’til I’m blind/ I once had a refuge in music and wine/ But now I am deaf to the word on the line.” Like “No, Surrender” on What is Love For, we get a full-blown dose of the world as Currie sees it, but in a way that’s listenable and, perhaps surprisingly, likeable.
While What is Love For revealed a Justin Currie resigned to the misery of love, he shows in The Great War that he’s at least willing to fight. And although he might think it’s a losing fight no matter what, after listening to the album, you’re not going to mind if we do.
4 1/2 stars out of 5.
