Labels: Adagio830 – Cosmic Note
Review by: Danny Parsons
Fuck a duck this is good. Just to clarify “” this is a review of the original 2006 album, but the 4th pressing (2009); I mean, it’s been remastered and all that jazz but”¦blah to that. Thank fuck I’ve finally got my hands on this release; I no longer have to scour a well-known internet-auction site for ridiculously-priced copies. Huzzah! Being the 4th pressing there’s a cd and a fancy dvd of live videos, but more about that later.
Comadre are the best and that’s a fact. Or at least this album is anyway (I’m waiting to hear the newest one after reviewing this. Objectivity is the key people!). I always used to think of Comadre as a kind of sped-up, straight-up and generally better version of Neil Perry (not that I dislike that band at all mind); I hope that’s a good point of comparison in terms of contemporary screamo/punk. They cut out all the tech excessivness and are really just what the doctor ordered. A paced punk/hardcore amalgam full of hairy men. Perhaps, in terms of their influences you could look to one of the songs by Kid Dynamite that they cover on “Songs About The Man’. A raging cover if I might say so myself.
Although I am literally popping boners left, right and centre for this album I have to flag up something at the start. One of the negative aspects of this band “” which they share with Neil Perry “” is horrendous song names. I mean admittedly, they’re a lot better on this album than the preceding one (“Mess with the Best, Undress like the Rest’. WTF) but still”¦
Q: Hey Danny, what’s that ace song you’re listening to?
A: Mumble, mumble, mumble.
Q: Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.
A: “Hit me up on my Celly Cell’ by Comadre. *AHEM*
IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE AMUSING? IS IT SOME WILD CULTURAL REFERENCE? Frankly, I couldn’t care. I only get so pissed off about it since they’re such an excellent band. Another blinder is “Hey Holmes, Slow Down’. Anyway, rant over. Less of that please guys.
So, the album then. Track one = feedback, drum roll, *pause* and it all goes west. Punk as fuck and I love it. A really decent straight forward song that acts as an excellent introduction to the album; it really sets the tone. Plenty of quick drums and chugging and it’s all over in 1:14. Brilliant. I’m a massive fan of the vocals in Comadre; really throaty, really screamy and he doesn’t ever try to “sing’. Good lad. Kind of like the Loma Prieta vocals but better, and not fed through some bizarre machine to make them sound gruff. That said, there’s a weird bit in the second song that I’m not so sure about. I think it’s probably a girl screaming or at least it sounds like one. Or an animal being run over. Hrm.
This album really is an entity of sorts and there’s always a bit of feedback, screaming or the shimmering of cymbals to lead in to the next song. This equals cool in my books. It’s not until the fourth track that we’re introduced to a more melodic side to the band. There’s a beat that reminds me of some Funeral Diner song that I can’t be arsed to remember, coupled with nice slow chords. Prep yo’self though (hey, maybe that could be a future song name for them) because there’s an epic build at the end of the song. Lot’s of nice layering going on. Real neat. This is the general feel of the album “” plenty of pounding beatz with some nice start-stop stuff thrown in for good measure.
“Backland Dirt’ kicks off “” like many of the songs “” with a film quote; this one sounds like Isabella Rossellini (I’ll have to Google that one) and she’s whinging about taking too many pills or something. Sweet. There are clips of this throughout the song too, which surprisingly doesn’t get annoying at all (that wasn’t sarcasm). Anyway, this is probably the poppiest song on the album, instrumentally anyway. There’s some nice clean guitar parts in there but thankfully, the vocalist doesn’t slack off at all. Amen to that. Ahhhhh, then an interlude! Given their energetic stylings, you wouldn’t think that an interlude of this sort would work, but it really does. Twinkly guitars that are a bit sad-face and the vocalist’s sobbing all over the shop about “staying together’. If I was a complete wimp I’d admit that it’s my favourite track on the album. Bah, who am I kidding “” I dig it. Gets a bit heavier near the end though and leads into the next track nicely with shat-loads of group vocals. Cool song.
Right, so a little chat about the packaging and dvd before I exceed a 1,000 words. The dvd’s what you’d expect really, a bit of live footage, some larking around and two of the band members in blonde wigs (?!). Shame there’s not a lot of live sound though, just their songs played over footage. Although, as they say at the start of the dvd: “who watches band dvds anyway?’. So yeah, enough of that. The packaging’s reeeeaaaaalllllly nice; a hefty gatefold with information and the like in. The sleeve of the record itself has super-cool high-resolution live pictures with all the lyrics on too. Real cool and well worth your $$$.
So, all in all an excellent album (like I needed to tell you that) which everybody should listen to at least once. High points for me are the sobby interlude and the penultimate song “” “Give me Hell’ which I haven’t mentioned here purely because I don’t think that words would do it sufficient justice. I reckon the vocals really reach their peak at the end of that number. An entirely subjective low point for me is the fact that there’s a bass twiddle at some point that reminds me of being 13 years old and listening to Rancid. Like Comadre or you’re a complete fairy.