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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Comet Gain
Realistes!\r\n(Kill Rock Stars Records)
By Matthew Smith
Breaks the heart, finding a band this good and realizing that, because it’s unknown and on an indie label, few will ever hear its music. Forget radio exposure. Comet Gain, though they’ve been around in one form or another since ’93, barely warrant notice in their native England, let alone here. An under-underground band, I suppose.
That aside, the band’s fourth album, Realistes!, ranks among the year’s best releases. The sound is mod and pop tinged with blue-eyed soul and a film-noir groove that’s funneled through a hazy lo-fi mix. Sure, it’s been done before, though seldom this well.
“We’ve been waiting around so long just to hear some decent songs,” lead singer David Feck sings in “The Kids at the Club,” beginning an album of brilliant songs. This song’s reprise follows a roadmap of Britpop guitar from Townshend to Weller.
Fuzzed-out power chords chime, fade, and then dive bomb into your pleasure center. Bliss. The haunting “I Close My Eyes and Think of God,” seeks the divine but (like The Kinks’ “Big Sky”) halts short of embracing belief or rejection. On another — probably unintended — level, the song exists as an aching meditation on 9-11 as powerful as anything on Springsteen’s (also great) latest. “My Defiance” revisits the promise of early ’80s music before Madonna, MTV, and synth pop sent it all to hell. “Movies” delivers a wonky sing-along ode to Hitchcock, Rushmore, and, well, all movies. The perfect title track sounds like something from our own Faceless Werewolves.
The rest runs A to A-plus. If The Who Sell Out, The Village Green Preservation Society (The Kinks), and the Jam’s Sound Affects speed your heart rate, Realistes! is the album you’ve been waiting years for. If you have no idea what I’m talking about but think “My Generation” and “You Really Got Me” are cool songs then just go buy the album.
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