Dreaming in Romance Languages is Catie Curtis’s fifth album. Curtis has a large lesbian following and her songs have spoken to those fans. From Radical, where she states, “I’m not being radical when I kiss you. I don’t love you to make a point,” to her mellow love song to her partner Elizabeth. Curtis has been out and proud in her music and it has not hurt her success in the folk music world. As a matter of fact, her songs have been featured on shows like Dawson’s Creek and Chicago Hope.
Dreaming in Romance Languages
Curtis’s music lurks more in the shadows of life’s struggles on Dreaming in Romance Languages. From her cover of Mark Sandman’s
The Night, a slow, dark and moving melody to
Dark Weather where she pleads, “Don’t go into the water. We’re going to get through this dark weather, we’re going to get through this together.”
The album opens with St. Lucy, a folk melody infused with electric guitars and up beat drums, a feverish cry for insight. The next song, Deliver Me, is the strongest on the album. A slower acoustic tune in which she states, “All the angels that I know are fallen and broken, soaking in the muddy river. All the angels that I love, they don’t hang out above, the come down to deliver.”
Hold On
Hold On is fraught with longing and regret, trying to understand what went wrong with a relationship that seemed solid, reminiscent of early Melissa Etheridge.
There’s always trouble, from what I hear
Everyone we know is breaking up this year
Yeah, trouble, nothing new
But I never thought I’d have this trouble with you…
Oh mercy me, maybe for a minute I wanted to be free
But then I saw what I had to lose
The say the narrow path is the hardest to choose.
Catie Curtis Love Songs
Finally half way through the album we get one of Catie’s signature up-beat love songs in It’s the way you Are. “You are everything I could never be, I want to look at life from the top of your tree. A few of Catie’s songs have a country feel. The trouble You Bring is a twangy Lucinda Williams inspired sound and I could see myself two-stepping to Red Door, an upbeat and quirky song about a town burning down. Like most good folk song writers, Dreaming in Romance Languages is filled with good metaphors. And the album wouldn’t feel complete without a plea for world peace, which she does in Doctor.
Dreaming of Catie Curtis
Overall, Dreaming in Romance Languages is a strong album, but not as solid as some of Catie’s earlier work. If you haven’t heard of Catie Curtis yet, try her out. Once you hear her voice, you’ll never forget it.
