Our Lady Peace - Curve (2012)

The eighth studio album from Our Lady Peace finds the Canadian-born Los Angeles-based alt-rockers pushing the boundaries, offering up a nine-song set that lead singer Raine Maida describes as "more experimental and ambitious" than any of their previous outings. The resulting Curve more or less lives up to its ballpark idiom, and while it may not signal a complete reinvention, it definitely distances itself from the calculated guitar-driven alt-rock that dominated 2009's Burn Burn. Stand-out cuts like the hooky, instantly gratifying "As Fast as You Can" and the moody Radiohead-meets-the National single "Heavyweights," are adventurous and radio ready, allowing room for both the band and Maida, whose distinctive warble remains more than respectable, to strut their stuff, but too much of the album is plagued by overly earnest pap like "Find Our Way," "If This is It," and "Window Seat," which just sound like rote '90s alt-rock songs with new window treatments.