Impromptu gigs in Marks & Spencer bakery aisles and a severance of their contract with Colombia Records due to desire for greater musical integrity set the tone for Little Comets as a band making music for all the right reasons.
The release of third LP ‘Hope Is Just a State of Mind‘, following a teasing trickle of EP releases throughout 2014, gives further credence to the notion that there is an engaging depth of subject matter underpinning the grimy indie disco sensibilities of frantic percussion and complex guitar runs on early tracks such as ‘One Night In October’ and ‘Dancing Song’, from 2011 debut ‘In Search Of Elusive Little Comets‘.
Opener ‘My Boy William‘ begins with light acoustic strumming backing singer Robert Coles’ wistfully intensifying vocal cries of, “The right to dream of my boy William”, leading into a mood shifting swell of guitar and drums as harmonising backing vocals from Michael Coles and Matt Hall develop a sauntering deliverance in a plea of endurance when all seems lost.
Delicately poised harmonies at the core of ‘B&B‘ represent a sprightly sounding, yet solemn depiction of lost youth and the daunting onset of a belligerent tax throttling adulthood. Rhyming couplets abound in the chorus lines, “A heart like a candle, melted with a frying pan handle, left on the heat too long, now only can I sing this song”, before soaring twee vocals take centre stage on ‘The Gift Of Sound‘, complete with swirling Bombay Bicycle Club aping afro-beat rhythms – a template of much of the band’s work to date.
In a parallel world, where the vocal inflections of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor and Red Hot Chilli Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis are somehow conjoined, the resultant output would appear in staccato laden track ‘Formula‘, inclusive of spikes of guitar bursts and ranging drum patterns underpinning an intriguing anecdote of world weariness and wasted hours.
Much like the apparent winding through the rich embroidery of the world when walking through the multi-cultural streets of New York City’s ethnic hubs, previous single release ‘Little Italy‘ demonstrates the contemporary indie template of The Maccabees and Vampire Weekend in its use of refined and synchronised guitar runs, and the sonically fluorescent glow emitting from the serenade inducing tones of ‘The Daily Grind‘ provides a weighty midway, piano-led digression into ‘Salt‘, offering a synth heavy, instrumentally and vocally splintered highlight which echoes the borderline abstract flawlessness in segments of Everything Everything’s back catalogue, even featuring of a madcap Egyptian sounding guitar breakdown.
The weightless spiralling of ‘Effetism‘ reflects the danceable Friendly Fires body shaking snippets of early recordings, while ‘Don’t Fool Yourself‘ brings 80s glam pop into the mix, with its glittering instrumental components and jangling guitar chorus complete with ear blistering vocals and charmingly maudlin ending lines in, “Fall on my heartstrings, my precious heartstrings, they’re never going to let you down”.
It’s the powerful taunting of misogynist tendencies in the music industry and society as a whole on final track ‘The Blur, The Line & The Thickest of Onions‘ which truly displays the lyrical potency of the band. Transcending beyond its surface role as an album closer, the sheer disbelief flowing through statements such as, “Question the agenda of an industry that only can objectify, you write about a non-existent blurred line, but not about abortion rights”, becomes a resonating clarion cry for those at odds with a society still largely accepting of gender inequality.
This form of engagement with larger questions of humanity at the heart of ‘Hope Is Just a State of Mind’ is precisely why Little Comets have survived and flourished beyond the universal indie clear-out at the back end of the noughties.
They are a band with much to say about the difficulties of growing up in a culturally diminishing, post-recession Britain, yet provide a sense of optimism in their richly varied and hugely enjoyable tapestry of auditory influences.