DIANA

This short EP was included on my Japanese paper sleeve edition of First Utterance which felt like a nice little treat at the time when I purchased the quite expensive debut studio album by Comus. It's safe to say that the new material on EP/Maxi paints a diverse picture of the collective behind Comus but ultimately the directionless approach makes it inferior to the classic studio album that succeeded it.

Even though this version of Diana is about ten seconds shorter than the final version that made it to the studio album I can't hear much of a difference on this recording. Lost Queen's Eyes is a surprisingly beautiful and upbeat number that would probably not have worked so well in the combination with the much moodier material from the debut album and it was a good choice not to add it to the track listing. Having said that I actually really like this short little tune and it would have been interesting to see how Comus could have turned out if they followed this direction. The 8-minute long Winter Is A Coloured Bird adds another piece to the Comus puzzle by showing us a pure folk rock arrangement to the music making this track sound even more traditional. This style is quite beautiful even though was hardly original even by 1971-standards.

Diana - Maxi single tells a totally different story of the band's development which might surprise everyone who has heard First Utterance, and vice versa. Ultimately this is nothing I can recommend to anyone who isn't a big fan of Comus, hence a collectors/fans only recording.

**** star songs: Diana (4:24) In The Lost Queen's Eyes (2:50)

*** star songs: Winter Is A Coloured Bird (8:02)