The Sunset Curse

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Synthesizers and yelping are all the rage, and while those things are present on Artificial Heart, the Sunset Curse is about more than the zeitgeist. The first thing you notice about Heart is that it's easy on the ears. A line of lush keys, eight-bit bleets and don't-stop drum lines wash over and lull you into a trance. And there is freedom in the shouts of Christopher Owen Nelson. He sounds like he is constantly breaking the rat race wide open. But a second listen reveals desperation, even hopelessness. "Your wings are gonna burn," he says over and over again in "Too Close to the Sun." No need to quote lyrics to give you an idea what the album's penultimate track is about. It's called "Life Is an Ocean, Death Is a Breeze." The album art is adorned with a dumpy naked man trapped behind a console and a dumpy naked woman holding a slipping shadow. Rise up, people.