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Opening with static-fed, saturated vocals and bouncy handclaps, this
lo-fi record introduces itself with a stirring bit of inspiration:
"The needle drops/ The stereo gives/ It's never too late to learn how
to live," Comet Gain mastermind David Feck and vocalist Rachel Evans
sing with cutesy glee. The 6-year-old British sextet then bursts into
distorted guitar, tambourine shakes and trashcan beats on lead track
"The Kids at the Club," an edgy, purposefully off-key jangly rock
sound that continues throughout the band's fourth long-player,
Realistes.
Rough but melodic, stark but engaging, the 12-track recording first
— and most derivatively — evokes the Velvet Underground,
but also summons an overall dark-sided, art-punk bohemian mood. And,
in the end, by adding their own spin to a heavy
garage-rock/proto-punk influence, they make the powerful songs their
own.
Gnarly guitar riffs reverberate, keyboards drone, coarse rhythms
break down, then reform, and buzzing feedback feeds back. Lacking the
centered familiarity of one lead singer, the songs are instead driven
by the fun interplay between Feck's whiny wails and Evans' childlike
croons.
Le Tigre founder Kathleen Hanna (ex-Bikini Kill) sings on "Ripped-Up
Suit!" — the album's most grinding, dirty and explosive rock
song, perfect for Hanna's angry, fuzzed-out yelps. Intensified by
heavy, pulsating beats and suspenseful build-ups that break into
racing, urgent rhythms, "When I Try to Look So Bad" hits with the
most emotional impact. The infectious, silly-feeling "Movies" lists a
number of both obscure and legendary movies and, like a broken
record, begs again and again, "Will you take me?/ Will you take me?/
To the movies/ I'm feeling groovy."
The band may rightfully suggest it's never too late to learn how to
live. But the powerfully written songs, which swing from blasting
rock to slowed-down melancholy, also make the point that it's never
too late to borrow from '70s-era brainy but street-smart punk —
that is, if you do it right like Comet Gain.
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