Curtis Harding Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt
Curtis Harding's Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt frames heartbreak and wry humour as a cinematic journey, pairing retro soul moods with dance-pop and electronica textures. Critics note a patient craft to the record, where songs like “There She Goes” and “The Power” reveal themselves across repeats, while “Math Equation”, “Good Riddance”, and “Amnesia” map the album's emotional terrain from isolation and longing to bittersweet irony.
Across two professional reviews, reviewers consistently praised the blend of organic and electronic production and the album's concept-album narrative that charts love across time and distance. PopMatters highlights the orchestral hook of “There She Goes” and the urgency of “The Power” as standout tracks, crediting Harding's arrangements for rewarding repeat listens. Song Bar emphasizes textured vocals and punchy, Madonna-like electronica in songs such as “Math Equation” and “Good Riddance”, noting the record's ability to turn devastation into catharsis with dry wit.
While both critics celebrate the record's stylistic range—from dance-floor anthems to elegiac, ambient moments—some praise is tempered by the sense that its best rewards come with patience, not instant hooks. The critical consensus suggests Departures & Arrivals stands as a thoughtfully crafted, sometimes slyly humorous addition to Harding's catalog, one whose best songs emerge as clear highlights and whose fusion of retro soul and modern electronics marks it as worth exploring in full.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
There She Goes
1 mention
"The first 25 seconds of the opening track, “There She Goes”, set the stage for all of Departures & Arrivals."— PopMatters
Good Riddance
1 mention
"she manages a perky as well as gorgeously floaty, cathartic, if still bittersweet final track - Good Riddance"— Song Bar
Math Equation
1 mention
"On Math Equation, for example: "You said I needed my own friends / So I found them / Then you fucked them.""— Song Bar
The first 25 seconds of the opening track, “There She Goes”, set the stage for all of Departures & Arrivals.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
There She Goes
Out In The Black
Banh Me
Time
Hard As Stone
The Power
True Love Can't Be Blind
I'm With You
Felt It Inside
The Winter Soldier
Running Outta Space
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 2 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
There is a patience to Curtis Harding on Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt, where the best songs reveal themselves slowly; the opener “There She Goes” immediately hooks with its orchestrated intro, while “Time” and “The Power” emerge as the album's most irresistible moments. Harding folds retro soul and modern electronics together so that the standout tracks - especially “There She Goes” and “The Power” - feel both nostalgic and urgent. These are the best songs on Departures & Arrivals because they marry memorable melodies with strong arrangement choices, rewarding repeat listens.
Key Points
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The best song, “There She Goes”, succeeds because it instantly establishes the album's blend of orchestration and futuristic sounds.
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The album's core strengths are its cohesive concept, fusion of retro and modern soul, and rewarding repeat listens.
Themes
