COMET GAIN
''PAPERBACK GHOSTS
AUGUST 12 2014
45:33
1 - Long After Tonite's Candles Are Blown 4:49
2 - 'Sad Love' and Other Short Stories 4:11
3 - Behind the House She Lived In 2:19
4 - Wait 'Til December 4:08
5 - Breaking Open the Head Part 1 3:53
6 - The Last Love Letter 4:29
7 - Sixteen Oh Four 2:05
8 - (All The) Avenue Girls 2:34
9 - Your Haunted Heart 2:59
10 - Far from the Pavilion 4:32
11 - An Orchid Stuck Inside Her Throat 3:13
12 - Confessions of a Daydream 6:13
REVIEW
by Tim Sendra
Now at 22 years and counting, the only question anyone needs to ask about a new Comet Gain record is, have they lost it yet? The answer after the first few minutes of their seventh record, Paperback Ghosts, is a resounding "NO!" Everything that makes the group so special is fully intact: the anguish and the anger, the poetry and the hooks, the breathless rush of unguarded love laid bare, and the bruises raised by the crushing blows of life. The songs that reach into your chest and tear your heart out, the songs that inspire you to say "Yes!" The sound of a band making the music they want to because they have to. It's all here. What's missing are the clattering guitars, the shouted vocals, and any traces of the lo-fi band they once were. David Feck and his cast of collaborators (holding steady here from the previous album, Howl of the Lonely Crowd, only with Jon Slade AWOL and ex-Clientele bassist James Hornsey on board) have rewritten the script a bit and Paperback Ghosts is their first album where the scales are tipped in favor of melancholic ballads instead of ramshackle rockers, with the ratio set at two-thirds tearful crooning and one-third ripping it up. An imbalance like that could lead one to believe that the bandmembers got mellow in their advancing age, but really it seems inspired more by the autumnal mood they were in at the time of writing and recording. Or maybe it was the result of hanging around with Hornsey. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is that a sad Comet Gain ballad is a fully committed and emotionally raw ballad. Even with Feck's vocals sounding smoother than ever, the production cleaner than ever, and the songs decorated with weeping violin sections, his words and delivery bleed sincerity and pain. Sometimes it drips (like on the late-night weeper "Wait 'Til December"), sometimes it flows (the achingly blue "An Orchid Stuck Inside Her Throat"), but it always sounds real, and it always hits hard right where it counts. The band rises to the occasion on these with lots of lovely folk-rock jangle and dramatic swells, even crafting a song that should/could be a hit single with "Sad Love and Other Short Stories." On the flip side of the equation, there are some fine uptempo tracks to balance the melancholy, especially the rollicking "(All The) Avenue Girls" and the Rachel Evans-sung charmer "Behind the House She Lived In." The album ends on the guitar-heavy "Confessions of a Daydream," which features some confounding lyrics, a guest appearance by the Yummy Fur's John McKeown, and an epic feel that's also something different for the band. All the new bits here and there, and the slightly altered course, help to make Paperback Ghosts the most accessible Comet Gain record yet, without compromising any of the burning passion that has made them so important to their loyal fans. Here's to another 22 years of brilliant albums!
BIOGRAPHY
by Mark Deming
Led by guitarist and vocalist David Feck (aka David Bower and David Christian), Comet Gain are a British indie pop band whose music is a freewheeling, literate fusion of folk-rock, twee pop, garage rock, R&B, punk, and any number of points in between. The first edition of Comet Gain was formed in 1992; Feck initially conceived the group as a trio with bassist George Wright and drummer Phil Sutton, but the band truly found its sound the following year, when Jax Coombes replaced Wright on bass and singer Sarah Bleach and guitarist Sam Pluck came on board. This lineup recorded the group's debut album, 1995's Casino Classics, which was released by the U.K. indie label Wiija.
In 1997, Wiija issued Comet Gain's second album in Great Britain under the title Magnetic Poetry, while it came out in the United States via Beggars Banquet in expanded form as Sneaky. However, months after the sophomore album arrived in stores, Feck's bandmates walked out on him, and he assembled a new version of Comet Gain from scratch, featuring Rachel Evans as female vocalist, M.J. "Woodie" Taylor on drums, and former Huggy Bear member Jon Slade on guitar and bass. The new version of Comet Gain cut the 1999 album Tigertown Pictures, which was released by Kill Rock Stars in America and Fortuna Pop in the U.K.
While Evans, Taylor, and Slade (and bassist Kay Ishikawa) have frequently played with Comet Gain since, Feck remains the only constant from the band's many personnel changes, and in a 2009 interview he claimed that 66 different people have been members of Comet Gain since the group's formation. Comet Gain's relationship with Kill Rock Stars resulted in two more albums, 2002's Realistes and 2005's City Fallen Leaves, while in 2008 Feck assembled Broken Record Prayers, a 20-song compilation drawn from the group's many single releases and compilation appearances.
Their sixth album, 2011's Howl of the Lonely Crowd, featured new keyboardist Anne Laure Guillain and found Comet Gain receiving some production assistance from one of their heroes, ex-Orange Juice leader Edwyn Collins. After that record, the band lost longtime members Ishikawa (in 2011) and Slade (in 2012), replacing them with Ben Phillipson on guitar and ex-Clientele member James Hornsey on bass. The new band returned in 2013 with the "Avenue Girls" single, before releasing its seventh album, the relatively quiet and autumnal Paperback Ghosts, in the early summer of 2014 on the Fortuna Pop label.
''PAPERBACK GHOSTS
AUGUST 12 2014
45:33
1 - Long After Tonite's Candles Are Blown 4:49
2 - 'Sad Love' and Other Short Stories 4:11
3 - Behind the House She Lived In 2:19
4 - Wait 'Til December 4:08
5 - Breaking Open the Head Part 1 3:53
6 - The Last Love Letter 4:29
7 - Sixteen Oh Four 2:05
8 - (All The) Avenue Girls 2:34
9 - Your Haunted Heart 2:59
10 - Far from the Pavilion 4:32
11 - An Orchid Stuck Inside Her Throat 3:13
12 - Confessions of a Daydream 6:13
REVIEW
by Tim Sendra
Now at 22 years and counting, the only question anyone needs to ask about a new Comet Gain record is, have they lost it yet? The answer after the first few minutes of their seventh record, Paperback Ghosts, is a resounding "NO!" Everything that makes the group so special is fully intact: the anguish and the anger, the poetry and the hooks, the breathless rush of unguarded love laid bare, and the bruises raised by the crushing blows of life. The songs that reach into your chest and tear your heart out, the songs that inspire you to say "Yes!" The sound of a band making the music they want to because they have to. It's all here. What's missing are the clattering guitars, the shouted vocals, and any traces of the lo-fi band they once were. David Feck and his cast of collaborators (holding steady here from the previous album, Howl of the Lonely Crowd, only with Jon Slade AWOL and ex-Clientele bassist James Hornsey on board) have rewritten the script a bit and Paperback Ghosts is their first album where the scales are tipped in favor of melancholic ballads instead of ramshackle rockers, with the ratio set at two-thirds tearful crooning and one-third ripping it up. An imbalance like that could lead one to believe that the bandmembers got mellow in their advancing age, but really it seems inspired more by the autumnal mood they were in at the time of writing and recording. Or maybe it was the result of hanging around with Hornsey. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is that a sad Comet Gain ballad is a fully committed and emotionally raw ballad. Even with Feck's vocals sounding smoother than ever, the production cleaner than ever, and the songs decorated with weeping violin sections, his words and delivery bleed sincerity and pain. Sometimes it drips (like on the late-night weeper "Wait 'Til December"), sometimes it flows (the achingly blue "An Orchid Stuck Inside Her Throat"), but it always sounds real, and it always hits hard right where it counts. The band rises to the occasion on these with lots of lovely folk-rock jangle and dramatic swells, even crafting a song that should/could be a hit single with "Sad Love and Other Short Stories." On the flip side of the equation, there are some fine uptempo tracks to balance the melancholy, especially the rollicking "(All The) Avenue Girls" and the Rachel Evans-sung charmer "Behind the House She Lived In." The album ends on the guitar-heavy "Confessions of a Daydream," which features some confounding lyrics, a guest appearance by the Yummy Fur's John McKeown, and an epic feel that's also something different for the band. All the new bits here and there, and the slightly altered course, help to make Paperback Ghosts the most accessible Comet Gain record yet, without compromising any of the burning passion that has made them so important to their loyal fans. Here's to another 22 years of brilliant albums!
BIOGRAPHY
by Mark Deming
Led by guitarist and vocalist David Feck (aka David Bower and David Christian), Comet Gain are a British indie pop band whose music is a freewheeling, literate fusion of folk-rock, twee pop, garage rock, R&B, punk, and any number of points in between. The first edition of Comet Gain was formed in 1992; Feck initially conceived the group as a trio with bassist George Wright and drummer Phil Sutton, but the band truly found its sound the following year, when Jax Coombes replaced Wright on bass and singer Sarah Bleach and guitarist Sam Pluck came on board. This lineup recorded the group's debut album, 1995's Casino Classics, which was released by the U.K. indie label Wiija.
In 1997, Wiija issued Comet Gain's second album in Great Britain under the title Magnetic Poetry, while it came out in the United States via Beggars Banquet in expanded form as Sneaky. However, months after the sophomore album arrived in stores, Feck's bandmates walked out on him, and he assembled a new version of Comet Gain from scratch, featuring Rachel Evans as female vocalist, M.J. "Woodie" Taylor on drums, and former Huggy Bear member Jon Slade on guitar and bass. The new version of Comet Gain cut the 1999 album Tigertown Pictures, which was released by Kill Rock Stars in America and Fortuna Pop in the U.K.
While Evans, Taylor, and Slade (and bassist Kay Ishikawa) have frequently played with Comet Gain since, Feck remains the only constant from the band's many personnel changes, and in a 2009 interview he claimed that 66 different people have been members of Comet Gain since the group's formation. Comet Gain's relationship with Kill Rock Stars resulted in two more albums, 2002's Realistes and 2005's City Fallen Leaves, while in 2008 Feck assembled Broken Record Prayers, a 20-song compilation drawn from the group's many single releases and compilation appearances.
Their sixth album, 2011's Howl of the Lonely Crowd, featured new keyboardist Anne Laure Guillain and found Comet Gain receiving some production assistance from one of their heroes, ex-Orange Juice leader Edwyn Collins. After that record, the band lost longtime members Ishikawa (in 2011) and Slade (in 2012), replacing them with Ben Phillipson on guitar and ex-Clientele member James Hornsey on bass. The new band returned in 2013 with the "Avenue Girls" single, before releasing its seventh album, the relatively quiet and autumnal Paperback Ghosts, in the early summer of 2014 on the Fortuna Pop label.
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