The Comsat Angels The Glamour
2-CD, 2007, Re-Release, Remastered, Digisleeve

Digitally remastered 2007 reissue of the Comsat Angels' 1995 album. Now a double CD, this is the version that the band originally wanted to release. They have added 8 previously unreleased recordings, including 5 previously unreleased songs.

This has to be one of the world's most unlucky bands. The Comsat Angels could have ruled the world, if they'd just had anything but the longest, most demoralizing series of misfortunes, mostly at the hands of the labels that were supposed to be supporting their candidacy. First, Jive attempted to turn them into A Flock of Seagulls in the mid-Eighties. Then Island, who wouldn't stand up for their name against a space-hardware company, eventually forced them to change it to Dream Command, and then dropped them anyway. Still, they made a terrific comeback album called My Mind's Eye in 1992, and have put out two impressive radio-session CDs since, and things really were finally looking up. So, would the departure of bassist Kevin Bacon and the arrival of two new members, the first personnel changes in the band's history, be the detail that derailed them this time? The drums no longer sound like they were recorded inside a hollow asteroid, the guitars no longer sound as much like the distorted emanations of shattering galaxies, and Stephen Fellows voice doesn't tremble nearly as close to the brink of heat death. "Oblivion", with its reversed electric and precise acoustic guitars, and limber bass part, would probably look like something off Waiting for a Miracle written out on paper. "Sailor" is technically spare, using just one guitar and some keyboards as accompaniment. Burbling keyboards and oscillating bass open "Psychedelic Dungeon", which then slides into a sawing two-note groove accompanied by Mik Glaisher, who still has the best splash cymbal sound ever captured on microphone.

"The Glamour" is a pounding four-chord rock song, but the four chords are odd ones, more a trapezoidal formation than square. "Web of Sound", with its churning guitars and throbbing bass, could easily have fit on My Mind's Eye next to "Driving" or "Route 666". Audrey in Denim", previewed on Unravelled, has stark trademark Comsat Angels verses, and the way the chorus "SS100X", the other Unravelled track, steps up the scale is a particularly Angel-esque touch. However, the album comes together in its best form for the last three tracks. "Anjelica" puts the rock aspirations on hold and churns through a song that is repetitive in all the best ways, showing that the two new members have been adequately tutored in the virtues of a carefully executed slow chord cycle. "Valley of the Nile", which essentially dispenses with the notion of a chorus, is even more focused. Fellows' resonant voice slides a carefully controlled melody through a steady weave of guitars and keyboards, and the song never breaks its deliberate slow pace for a second. "Spaced", the epic final song, then drifts in as a soft meditation that reminds of Ian McNabb at points, transforms after a few minutes into a minor sonic tempest, and then subsides again, trailing off gracefully with an extended coda of eerie piano, smooth bass and skeletal drumming.