The music industry has a strange way of working. Compulsion's Comforter came out just six months prior to Bush's Sixteen Stone; both bands were from the U.K., both albums were released by the same major label (Interscope), and both had a similar Nirvana-esque post-grunge sound honed by experienced British producers (Ian Caple and, to a lesser degree, Alan Moulder on Comforter, versus Sixteen Stone's Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley). But, whereas Sixteen Stone went multi-platinum and launched Bush into international stardom, the singles off Comforter gained little radio play in the U.S., as the album all but disappeared from the landscape. Which is really surprising, because Comforter features relatively strong songwriting and musicianship, albeit with easily traceable roots to the Pixies and Nirvana. Tracks like "Mall Monarchy," "Why Do We Care?," and "Eating" are prime examples of the power of the 4/4, bass guitar drive, loud-soft rock dynamic of the mid-'90s, while more straight-ahead tracks "Rapejacket" and "Ariadne" reach for anthemic status. Comforter features singularly named Josephmary's snarling lead vocals, which are equal parts Cobain and Mike Ness and alternate between gravely talked vocals and yells. The album's strength, however, is its songs, whose subject matter explores themes of suburban ennui in an aggressive yet detached and ironic light, and are, in the end, both powerful and melodic. The shame is that this spark of intelligence and talent, which arguably is missing from many of the more successful post-grunge acts, never really had a chance to blossom. As such, look for Comforter in a cutout bin near you; it's a very good post-grunge artifact.
© Aaron Warshaw /TiVo