Song To Comus: The Complete Collection

This is a fairly pricy collection. Only two disk and two albums, neither of which are well know outside of the far reaches of prog and "acid folk" circles. That being said this album is worth buying for the first disk alone. I'll echo nearly every person on here with my opinion of the second album, To Keep From Crying, and I'll get the unpleasantries over with first. This album sucks to high heaven. Its sole redeeming feature is that it ends. Even in the notes for this collection (which are excellent) Roger Wootton expresses how much he dislikes the album. It's syrupy, poppy and generally dreadful in the worse possible sense. I simply can't imagine how anyone who enjoys music can like this album. With that out of the way I'll focus on First Utterance, the album that this bands legacy is based on. I remember downloading it quite a while ago with no real expectations of the sound, only hearing that it was acoustic, primal and truly dark and disturbing. What followed was an assault unlike anything my frail little ears had ever heard, brutal, complex, wild and obnoxiously original. This album grabs hold of the listener by the collar, shakes them around for 50 min or so and then tosses them in the dirt; the band name (from Milton's masque) perfectly suits not only the band but the album as whole. Insanity has never sounded so good, and so inviting, and indeed playing this album to an unsuspecting person might very well drive them over the edge. So in short if you're on the fence about buying this album, just get it, it's worth the higher price for the first album alone. Listen to the second if for no other reason to grasp the entire band experience. But you'll most often reach for the first disk, and every time be transported to a far off time in a wild and scary land, it will haunt and possess your very being and consciousness. You'll not regret it.

I first heard of Comus because of Opeth's third album  My Arms, Your Hearse , which I found out was named after a line from Comus' song "Drip Drip." I figured, "If Mikael Akerfeldt likes this band enough to name an entire album after them, then I have to check them out." So I looked up the song on Youtube and instantly fell in love with the band. The creepy atmosphere mixed with progressive folk rock created a sound unlike any I'd heard before, and it was glorious. So of course, seeing a relatively cheap complete collection of their work here on Amazon, I knew I had to buy it.The first disc is amazing, simply put. The first album is hauntingly beautiful, and I especially love the stereo mix on it. Certain instruments come from certain speakers, and when listening to it on a good stereo system it almost seems like the band is right in front of you. Almost every song on here is fantastic; I'm admittedly not too fond of "The Herald" or "Bitten", but everything else is good enough that I'm more than willing to overlook them.The second disc, on the other hand, is...different, to say the least. It follows a much more pop/rock approach than the first album, and it definitely suffers from it. I knew about this difference in style though from reading reviews before purchase, so it didn't come as a surprise to me when I finally listened to it. When comparing it to the first album, it's absolutely terrible with nothing redeeming about it. However, judging it by it's own merit, it's...okay. It's not terrible, but it doesn't really rise to greatness at any point. The first song, "Down (Like A Movie Star)" is insanely catchy to me though, so I suppose that's a plus. When listening to this one, just remember to judge it on it's own, and not as a follow-up to First Utterance.This music isn't for everyone. It really, REALLY isn't. There will be people who don't like the vocals, don't like the instruments, or what have you. My advice is to listen to some songs on Youtube first and decide for yourself. Personally, I love this band, and this is a fantastic collection.

I know this album of course is not for everyone, but honestly I have never felt so much beauty and at the same time complete chaos and evil in the same album before it is just amazing(First Utterance). I had only heard Song To Comus and Diana online before deciding to buy this album and thought even that was worth it considering this set it cheaper than each of the separate CDS individually. Boy was I surprised when I surprised to find out I don't even like Song To Comus as much as their other songs on this CD. It is so beautiful. The Violin Acoustic guitar and Flute all go together wonderfully. Jethro Tull does a good job by making me feel like i am in medieval times, but I feel it moreso with this album.The second album seems to be made fun of a lot, and I honestly cannot see why. I only bought this because I could get it cheaper and had heard the second cd made fun of so much I decided to give it a listen and I LOVE IT. To me I see nothing wrong with it just further experimenting which all sounds great to me.

If you are the kind of guy (or gal for that matter) that loves to find little known gems that nobody has heard of, then this is for you. There is some really great stuff here.

Creepy proggy good, good, good!

Good package

This 2 CD package contains two radically different albums plus a few extra tracks of varying quality. The legendary First Utterance, the unsettling legendary debut deverves the most attention, with eerie -occasionally manic - vocals by Roger Wootton reminiscent of those by his namesake in Family at times (not a bad thing) accompanied by accomplished guitar work and the de rigeur warbling female voices of the era. Tracks like The Herald and Song to Comus include obtuse arrangements and downright creepy lyrics that give the album its reputation as an original and oddball hippy treat. To Keep From Crying is more melodic and greatly reliant on female vocals that are often astonishingly similar to early Kate Bush, especially on Get Yourself a Man and the title track. There are none of the barking mad arrangements or progressively extended tracks on this album and its template is similar to the other hippy outfits of the era like Principle Edwards Magic Theatre, consequently this album's less interesting than Fist Utterance. Roger Wootton's solo single added at the end of disc two is lousy, but that's a minor quibble about a very good pair of albums. Another minor quibble is that Roger's Egon Schiele-esque grotesque atwork is relegated to small images in the (decent) booklet- the skeletal creature should've graced the cover rather than bland lettering.

Having read the other reviews here - and being positively influenced to buy Song To Comus on strength of them - it was immediately clear to me that my acquaintance with certain genres of music from around the time Comus existed was limited to say the least. I am unfamiliar with Family, have only recently discovered - and loved - The Incredible String Band and know next to nothing about prog or acid rock. I'm also none too keen on labels and don't find the tendency to genre-box popular music too helpful as it immediately discourages large swathes of people who believe they dislike a particular genre to give perfectly great music a listen.I found that knowledge was not essential to an intelligent listen of this excellent collection.....Well, excellent in parts. I too found the first album greatly overshadowed the second - so much so that at times it sounded like two different bands were responsible. The second album was lacking in atmosphere and intensity and certainly achieved nothing like the range of moods of its predecessor. It seemed broadly much more commercial and sounded a little like Kate Bush in parts whereas the first album suggested to me a wide span of performers from Marc Bolan to Tull and Ian Anderson, the Incredibles of course and very obviously to Bowie, specifically his output from around the time of Width Of A Circle, very dark and brooding and toying with similar themes to those explored by Comus in The First Utterance. It did not surprise me to learn that Bowie appears to have been a fan and that influence shows loud and clear in his The Man Who Sold The World album. I am willing to believe that in the case of most of the aforementioned, Comus were first to tread this particular path.At times I wish it were possible to rewind to a moment in time and hear an album fresh as contemporary listeners would have - in the case of The First Utterance, this becomes a very strong desire as to hear it unencumbered by the countless examples of music that trailed in its wake which seem to take cues from it in terms of vocals, content and atmosphere. You rather expect those huge selling albums of the sixties and seventies too well known to mention here to be the only signposts to the psyche of performers and the general current of the times. Song To Comus is a reminder that occasionally less commercial output can be just as influential and can even give the listener an equally useful pointer as to what was going on. All the tracks are - for those of a nervous disposition - eminently listenable. I was a little nervous myself as I'd thought it may be so niche as to be incomprehensible for all but the most fanatical. Not so.The two Roger Wootton solo productions tacked on at the end of Song To Comus are admittedly odd not in a good way and could reasonably be described as dire. On initial listen - and I may leave it a while before I replay these tracks - one of them sounds like some sort of paean to Spanish package holidays. But again these songs bear little relation to the stuff on either the first or second album - so all told there are three distinct and very different musical approaches which form this collection.A very interesting set of songs - well worth having if you're keen on music from this period and music that's happened since.

I bought the first album when it came out and it did funny things to my head, but nevertheless it was one of the most original pieces of work I'd ever heard and appealed to my adolescent ear. Had I have bought the second album at the time I would have been hugely disappointed with it. However, having heard it for the first time 2006 I think To Keep From Crying is actually rather good, much better than some of the reviews may have suggested - and much better than the band themselves may have intimated.What sets it apart from other albums of the time, as with First Utterance,is the completely bonkers mad vocals - how does Bobbie sing in that register? It must almost be off the vocal scale! O.k., it is more "commercial" than First Utterance, and the production could be better in places. They could have made a more consistent piece of work, but what the hell - this is top quality "acid folk" which blows most of that ilk out of the water. There is very little out there as weird and wonderful as these two albums,and Roger Wootton et al should really be pleased with their efforts all those years ago. Granted,the lyrics on First Utterance may sound a bit sick in places (much more so than some of the death metal and heavy stuff about at present) but it is ethereal, evocative, well played,quite mad, but still has its moments of beauty. What more do you want? If you compare this with the early efforts of bands like early Pink Floyd and all the other supposedly wacky late sixties and post psychadelic stuff, there's no real comparison. Comus are a one off and I defy anyone to name a band that comes anywhere near the sheer audacity of what to do with mainly acoustic instruments and the male and female voice. Put it on your your i-pod, go down into the cellar in the dark and see how long you last before calling out for mummy........

Love this band. How can rock history have overlooked such talent? Rock/prog fans will be AMAZED with this.

I always forget how much I love this album, and everytime I remember I put it on and the I love it a little bit more. It's fairly harrowing stuff, not first date music by any means but the melodies, the playing and the interplay between the two astonishing (in different ways) lead vocals make it a captivating listen. And "The Herald" is one of the best songs anybody has done. Ever. The second album, also included here is not as good, true but it's not terrible. Almost 40 years later there's talk of a new one on the way. I am rather excited!