Albums

Betty Curse - Hear Lies Betty Curse (album sampler)

Tim Miller 17/10/2006

Rating: 1/5

Someone has a lot of faith in goth-chic chick Betty Curse. The British answer to Avril Lavigne, the rock response to Lily Allen, Betty Curse is paradoxically lucky (and obviously very marketable), in the position of being a new, young, female solo artist atop a cultural wave; able as she is to send out samplers of her debut album to reviewers rather than the full record. The record company, her image owners perhaps, someone definitely believes she is going to be worth something. Which, as is sadly often the case, means that the music comes a poor second in the overall Betty Curse package.

This sampler offers a very American grunge sound that is also very Avril, or even Kelly Clarkson. Restrained 'rocking out' guitars, thrashing cymbals, anthemic choruses akin to Good Charlotte hits, titles like 'God This Hurts', 'Excuse All The Blood' and 'Do You Mind If I Cry?' feature just the sort of lyrics you would expect from US-influenced teeny-bop rock. Betty Curse sounds the part, and looks it, but hers is an (admittedly attractive) image very much fashioned on youth culture, with the music to sit snugly side by side; inoffensive and catchy, generic and commercial.

It's a shame, because this reviewer initially reviewed the single 'God This Hurts' and concluded that there was potential which could shine on the album; indeed, there seem to be heads on the line if Betty Curse does not make a big breakthrough into the mainstream charts. But this album sampler: ok, it's not going to give away all the best bits, but it shouldn't be in its nature to actually put people off. All this appears to precede is an album which sounds exactly as this reviewer feared it would at worst, which means tiresome and clichéd, unoriginal and focussed on shifting units.

Not of course that there's anything essentially wrong in record companies having artists existing for that reason, more that I did hold out some hope for Betty Curse. Alas; RIP. I guess it's back to Lily Allen for me.


Hear Lies Betty Curse [sic] is released digitally on the 30th November 2006. It has a scheduled physical release for January 2007.