Comet Gain: Howl of the Lonely Crowd

Label: What's Your Rupture

It's been a long time since I've thought in terms of, "This band could speak for me -- I would let them." But sitting here trying to catalog everything that is so right-on about London's Comet Gain, the coolest indie vets that side of Superchunk, I was reminded how much actual talking they do in their songs, a tradition they continue on the brilliant, ragged and absolutely necessary Howl of the Lonely Crowd. Then I realized that even when David Christian and Rachel Evans are singing, the songs still speak -- Comet Gain songs are chants, battle-cries, declamations and statements of disapproval, loyalty, disgust and love. Howl of the Lonely Crowd sounds like the work of a band that's been thoroughly informed by every good strain of pop and post-punk to come along in the past 20 years, which really is the simplest way to sum up Comet Gain. And their song titles so closely mirror the emotional temperature within: "An Arcade from the Warm Rain That Falls," "After Midnight, After It's All Gone Wrong," "A Memorial for Nobody I Know," "Some of Us Don't Want to Be Saved" -- god! Thirteen perfect tune-stories, no shortage of lyrics you'll scrawl on your leather jacket, in the margins of your textbooks, all rounded into shape by pop legend Edwyn Collins: It's here to save you, and maybe even howl for you, whether you like it or not.