Whilst I was lying in bed awake last night I was thinking about great album openers, and I was trying to think past the obvious stuff like The Queen is Dead, and that. I got to thinking about Pale Saints' 1990 album Comforts of Madness, which I don't listen to for years on end some times, but remains such a precious record.
Just listen to Ian Masters' voice on that album. It's so fragile! And its opener, The Way the World Is is wonderful. It's so full of energy and tension and anticipation for the rest of the album, which contains, lest we forget, The Best Break Up Song EVER in Sight of You.
Comforts of Madness reminds of starting to go out a bit in Grimsby around 1990, and leaving school with my then-girlfriend and us both sharing a dingy flat above a vets practice in the centre of town. And it reminds me of getting hopelessly drunk on Thunderbird, getting 6am buses to work with hangover, and ridiculously inept sex. If there is any other kind.
The album's a masterpiece. Here's The Way the World Is.
4 comments:
Good call. Worth pointing out that the album finishes dead strongly too. I always thought it was pretty audacious to put the two poppiest songs ('Sight of You' and 'Time Thief') right at the end.
'time thief' always gets me off that album... I remember being totally in love with 'she rides the waves'- it seemed to be the quintessence of everything I wanted in a song at that time- the pale saints became this band I just had to hear more of after I heard them on a bi-joopiter compilation called 'what feet', the song on that was called 'wasting my time', it's ace! I remember the bus ride home after picking up the first ep... sigh! anyone for a werthers?
This record was wasted on the teenager me. I didn't give it enough time and it disappeared from my memory. But you're ace for reminding us because it just occurred to me that 'You Tear the World in Two' might be one of the greatest songs of all time.
Wow, listen to this! It's ace!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2nmnOT5c9w&feature=channel
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