By Henry Lipput
If you don't know anything about Comet Gain, the London-based indie band, you've probably heard their great 2001 pop single "You Can Hide Your Love Forever" on the Fortuna POP! label. As Fortuna POP! was going out of business in 2016, it released a series of singles including the truly wonderful Fortuna POP! All-Stars cover of that song.
"You Can Hide Your Love Forever" is just one side of Comet Gain. Founded in 1992, the band also seem steeped in the British punk and post-punk political legacy of groups like The Mekons, The Clash, and Close Lobsters.
You can hear all of this and more on Fireraisers Forever! the new album by Comet Gain. Founder, singer-songwriter, and guitarist, David Feck, had led an ever-changing line-up of musicians over the years that seem to have hit their stride on this new collection of songs.
The opening track, the blistering "We're All Fucking Morons," has short, sharp guitar licks and bursts of organ. With the lyrics "We're all fucking morons / Don't you know it's true / We're all fucking morons / My finger's pointing straight at you," the listener is included in the accusation. "Victor Jara Finally Found!" is a tribute to the Chilean folk singer and activist who was killed by his own government in 1973. In many ways it's Comet Gain's "Spanish Bombs." "Society Of Inner Nothing" has some fine intertwined guitar work and also recalls The Clash's London Calling.
Moving from the political to the personal, "The Godfrey Brothers" is a lovely, jangly pop tune. "Your Life On Your Knees" tells the tale of a guy who has really messed up his life: "Four A.M. in an alleyway crying / Wishing I was loved by someone." Two songs on Fireraisers Forever! contain echoes of The Replacements on Don't Tell A Soul/Dead Man's Pop. "I Can't Live Here Anymore" is about the end of a relationship and finishes with the heartbreaking sound of a child repeating his parent's "I can't live here anymore." And on "Her 33rd Perfect Goodbye," about a girl who glued her hopes to a sunset that never came and dances alone in her small room, Feck's vocal has a similar sound to Paul Westerberg on "Achin' To Be."
Fireraisers Forever! is out now on Tapete Records.
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