Land

It's due to their relative anonymity that The Comsat Angels have largely remained something of an enigma, although a well documented one.  And this new alliance with Jive finds them confident but perhaps still slightly cautious.

There doesn't seem to have been any great upheaval in their scheme of things - certainly the sound here is more precisely commercial and the songs are accordingly done more justice, but ultimately Land is a logical continuation rather than a startling re-evaluation.

What does astonish me is a refurbished - but hardly revolutionised - Independence Day - their now somewhat ageing mini-classic of several years back.  It makes a bemusing return, to little effect other than to underline the comparative lightness of the new material.  It's soaring vocal lines are still magnificent, but the vital spinal ingredient it contains is noticeably lacking from the rest of the album.

Independence Day throws too much of side one - apart from the potent, atmospheric Nature Trails - into it's shadow. 

Side two is different: happily, they stop coasting and start driving.  They move with ease from the pulsing, sparse electronics of Mister Memory (ignore the hideous title!) to the taut climax of As Above, So Below, revealing a much greater scope than is apparent in any of their previous work.  More significantly, they leave a wide array of options open for future use.