SONG TO COMUS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION

Whether you're one of the few who love Comus, or of the many who've not yet given in to the diabolical seduction of this incredible band, this is the perfect album; it has everything they've ever recorded, it's fairly easy to find, and the transfer to CD seems to have been done quite well.

So you may wonder if you'll like Comus. You probably won't. I personally love them, and that's a pretty good indication that they won't appeal to many people. They sound like nothing else (well, except for maybe JAN DUKES DE GRAY, but even fewer people have heard of them), and are almost impossible to describe. Acoustic folk-prog, I suppose, but performed by the Grunting and Keening Pagan Sex Magick Arkestra (I just made that up...but you can use it for your band if you really think you've got the balls). Anyway, Comus is too scary to listen comfortably and too funny to be overly uptight about it all. Almost an acoustic precursor to CAN, in a way. The lead singer sounds like he's trying to molest you through your spreakers, in an IAN ANDERSON-meets-THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION sort of way. He's joined by a female voice which beckons you sweetly through the forest until she turns to devour you whole. Sometimes everybody chants, which is always wholesome and comforting...and there's beautifully eerie violin and flute and miscellaneous percussion and...oh just listen to it, already!

All of "First Utternace" is here, which is a Very Good Thing, and they even included the delicious Dawn EP, with the alternate take of "Diana" (of interest only to collectors, honestly- the album version is superior) and three tracks so good that you wonder why they didn't make it on the debut. "In the Lost Queen's Eyes" in particluar is good enough to recommend this collection.

Unfortunately, all of "To Keep From Crying" is also here. Please keep in mind that this is Comus after they had already disbanded; this album was thrown together after the label desperately begged the remaining members for more material. Pick the Yes album you love the most (just one?) and then the one you wish had never been made (just one?) and you'll understand the vast difference in quality from Disc One to Disc Two. Comus was all about primal urges and organic expression, so a contrived collection of semi-pop tunes doesn't do them justice. Still, there are a few moments of beauty and brilliance (just like that Yes album you picked before), so it's not a compete coaster of a disc. The Wooton solo stuff at the end is interesting, too, but quite forgettable.

Again, I urge you to get it, already. For the same price as a Supersize Value Meal for two, you can buy a dark and dangerous voyage into an ancient forest teeming with lascivious satyrs (with flutes and violins). How can you resist? Don't even wait for me to finish this sentence, go buy this album. I'll wait right here...in the trees.