The Comforts of Madness
The debut album, with Sight of You re-recorded, a number 40 UK entry and a place on Pitchfork's shoegaze list.
Pale Saints, 1990
- Released
- 12 February 1990
- Studio
- Blackwing Studios, London
- Label
- 4AD
- Producer
- John Fryer and Gil Norton
- Length
- 41:06
John Fryer produced tracks one to three, five, nine and ten, and Gil Norton the rest, with Al Clay engineering Norton's tracks. Vaughan Oliver and Chris Bigg handled the art direction. Cooper, Masters and Naysmith are credited with all the instruments. The album reached number 40 in the UK and number 49 in Scotland. NME gave it nine out of ten, described a collage of melody and friction, and later named it the 45th best album of 1990. Pitchfork scored the 2020 reissue 7.6.
Reviewing the reissue for Pitchfork, Robert Ham wrote that Fryer and Norton brought the band closer to the 4AD aesthetic, coating Naysmith's guitar in washed-out colors and adding compression and dub-style effects to Cooper's drums. In the magazine's shoegaze list, Stephen Thomas Erlewine heard the hazy harmonies of Cocteau Twins and a restless urgency.
The 2020 reissue added a disc of demos of all eleven songs, recorded at Woodhouse Studio, plus a complete John Peel session and She Rides the Waves.
Track listing
- Way the World Is2:40
- You Tear the World in Two3:01
- Sea of Sound5:52
- True Coming Dream2:30
- Little Hammer2:17
- Insubstantial4:20
- A Deep Sleep for Steven3:44
- Language of Flowers2:54
- Fell from the Sun4:45
- Sight of You5:37
- Time Thief3:26
Personnel
- Ian Masters vocals, bass
- Graeme Naysmith guitar
- Chris Cooper drums, percussion
- John Fryer producer, engineer (tracks 1 to 3, 5, 9, 10)
- Gil Norton producer (tracks 4, 6 to 8, 11)
- Al Clay engineer (tracks 4, 6 to 8, 11)
More from Pale Saints
Barging Into the Presence of God (1989), Half-Life (1990), Flesh Balloon (1991), Mrs. Dolphin (1991), In Ribbons (1992), Slow Buildings (1994)
Sources
- The Comforts of Madness (album), Wikipedia
- The Comforts of Madness (4AD), God Is In The TV (2020-01-17)
- Pale Saints, Trouser Press
- Pale Saints: The Comforts of Madness, Pitchfork (2020-01-23)
- The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time, Pitchfork (2016-10-24)
- The Comforts of Madness (UK CD), Discogs
- The Comforts of Madness (master), Discogs
- Fell from the Sun, Pale Saints, SecondHandSongs