Artist: Stavesacre
Album: How To Live With A Curse
Label: Abacus Recordings
Tracks: 14
Review By: Jacob Gehman

Being a Stavesacre fan is mostly a positive experience. I’ve been into them ever since I picked up their second cd, “Absolutes,” at Goodwill for a couple of bucks. I had seen them live with Ghoti Hook and the Supertones before that and not been impressed. After all, I was just a youth group ska fan at the time. But walking into that Goodwill there was about eight Christian rock cds to choose from and somehow Stavesacre emerged from that rubble. It may have been that which determined my exact musical taste. “Absolutes” completely changed the way I viewed music. Without that I might still be listening to the Newsboys and wondering why the Supertones had to break up.

Most fans found their phonetically self-titled release to be disappointing. I enjoyed it a lot, but that was probably because I saw them live the night I bought it. Most fans complained about the production, however, when I look back at it now it really just suffers from a lack of compelling songs. That was their debut away from Christian mega-label Tooth and Nail, finding them instead on Nitro. Now, several years later, we see them on Abacus. With baited breath we wondered whether it would be another re-tread of their last cd, or if they could do something new and great to be the true heir to the throne of “Speakeasy.”

From the moment the opening lines (“I’m not looking for a reason to believe”) are sung you can tell that Stavesacre is back at the top of their game. It is super catchy and sounds just like Stavesacre should in the year 2006. I can not listen to the album for ages and suddenly one morning wake up humming one of the tracks, unable to get it out of my head.

The production on this album takes a 180 degree turn from their last album and tends to sound over polished. While that might normally be a murderous blow to an album (see “Silence” by Blindside for an example), what saves “How To Live With A Curse” is passion with which they play. You can still feel Mark Salomon’s urgency and emotion. The bass still bounces around. You get the drift.

At this point in the band’s career I can’t imagine Stavesacre releasing a much better album than this. I doubt if it will top “Absolutes” on my favorites list any time soon, but it is still a trill to play.