And they said indie music was dead.
Following a pretty hectic year, Tyne and Wear band Little Comets have just released their third studio album Hope is Just a State of Mind, featuring a careful assortment of tracks from recent EPs and previously unheard new material.
The first album on the band’s own independent label ‘The Smallest Label’, too, you get the feeling that this is the album the band wanted you to have: they created the sleeve, did the producing, gained funding from pledges… in a world that’s suddenly turned on indie music, writing it off as unauthentic and manufactured, Little Comets offer a refreshing sense of what it means to be ‘indie’. It’s not a criticism, I promise.
All the way back in 2011, the band released their debut album on Dirty Hit; Moulding the sound of Noughties indie around their own style and voice, it was difficult not to become attracted to it. The lyrics were astute, the vocals energetic and likenesses ranged from Good Shoes to a hint of Maxïmo Park to The 1975 (albeit a little less bland).
The sound has undergone a huge change since then, though, articulating very much the same clever ‘kitchen sink’ lyrics whilst growing up and toning down the jauntiness a little. There is still the odd essence of something a bit Maxïmo Park (see ‘Fundamental Little Things’), but the digression from earlier influences has never been more noticeable. The emphasis on drums and rhythm gives the album a very light feel to it, making it – aesthetically, at least – an album for the summer. It’s a festival album, if there is such a thing. The Lumineers did it, anyway, and that turned out pretty good.
On the downside, this isn’t going to be for everybody. Lyrically, perhaps. Musically, not so much. Apart from the odd arbitrarily placed riff, guitar doesn’t seem to fit in here very well. Fourth track ‘Formula’, for example, goes off on one about halfway through, guitars barging into an otherwise quite simple indie pop song, leaving you (or me, at least) a little confused. That said, ‘Little Italy’ gains a lot from the electric element. Despite an overriding style, Hope is Just a State of Mind does explore a lot of possible avenues, meaning there’s something for everybody, but not necessarily everything for somebody.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aJqM9bFSb8]
Highlights have to be ‘My Boy William’ (“Cut all the pages / from a magazine / I must preserve / the right to dream of / my boy William”), ‘The Daily Grind’ (We always seem to denigrate / Ourselves again at the point of being) and ‘Fundamental Little Things’. Or ‘Salt’. Or ‘Little Italy’. Ah, fuck. As I’ve always said right from the beginning, it’s impossible to dislike a band that can rhyme ear with nadir. Reading through the lyrics there is this slightly poetic element to the band, a wit that can’t just be put down to influences and technique. To step away from comparisons for a moment, Little Comets are an intelligent and enjoyable act in their own right and even if the music isn’t for you, you are likely to benefit from listening to it, even if just by learning what ‘fecund’ means.
To conclude, buy it. And then listen to it. And then listen to it again a few more times. The album is layered and it can take some getting used to to really appreciate the attentiveness of the lyrics, but stripped bare, this is a clever and quite charming little insight into what Little Comets can bring to the indie table.
7.5/10
Words by James