TO KEEP FROM CRYING

Recorded with a different lineup from First Utterance and performed in a strikingly different folk-pop style that's much closer to the rock mainstream than the debut album, To Keep From Crying might be a different aspect of Comus' music, but it's undeniably a less original one one. The fact is that mushy soft rock/folk-rock material like Figure In Your Dreams, So Long Supernova or Perpetual Motion was not exactly thin on the ground in the 1970s, and Comus' take on the style doesn't add much to it. Down (Like a Movie Star), the opening track, has an air of mild hysteria to it which includes flashes of the eccentricity of their earlier work, and a couple of short instrumentals reveal somewhat more interesting musical ideas bubbling under the surface, but they are sharing their running time with third-rate, forgettable material like the miserable Get Yourself a Man.

I wouldn't call it outright incompetent, but I can't rate this one especially highly - this is nothing more than middle-of-the-road mid-70s folk-pop, capably performed but without anything which really sets it head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, with just enough unusual twists added in to remind you of happier days for the band. Taken by itself, without considering the exceptional First Utterance, I'd still say it's three to three and a half stars - entertaining enough if you like the style of stuff it's going for, but not something you'll necessarily put on heavy rotation. In wake of the band's first album, it's one of the greatest disappointments in prog.