The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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The Comas formed in Chapel Hill, NC, in March 1998 as a joke country band, a sort of counterweight to the hyped No Depression movement. Before long, however, both the "joke" and the "country" parts of the concept were eliminated, thus allowing the band to develop into a quirky alternative rock outfit. The Comas' respectable 1999 debut, Wave to Make Friends, was comprised of sleepy (but not lethargic) indie pop and off-kilter boy-and-girl vocal harmonies, courtesy of co-founders Andrew Herod and Nicole Gehweiler. The band's instrumental canvas proved to be larger and more eclectic than that of the typical indie group, buoying the usual guitars and rhythm section with violin, organ, and creative non-rap samples. Faced with the challenge of labeling such music, The Comas' label billed deemed the sound "stoner pop."

The Comas issued Def Needle in Tomorrow during the fall of 2000; however, it was the 2004 release of Conductor that finally put the band on the map. Recorded after the collapsed relationship of frontman Andrew Herod and actress Michelle Williams, Conductor proved to be a fine breakup album, gathering accolades from major music magazines while also expanding the band's fan base. Riding on that success, The Comas signed with Vagrant in December 2005, and the ever-evolving band – which at this point was comprised of Herod, Gehweiler, keyboardist Matt Sumrow, bassist Jason Caperton, and drummer Nic Gonzales – released Spells in the spring of 2007. Two years later, Herod shifted his focus to Electric Owls, a side project whose music incorporated aspects of folk and psychedelia.

Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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The Comas play imaginative, hazy alt-pop on their debut. Winsome is an adjective often used to describe this kind of underground rock, sometimes implying a certain amateurishness as well, like when it's applied to recordings on the K label or the Raincoats. Those reference points aren't totally out of the ballpark, but there's a deeper level of accomplishment than there is on most K releases. Whether stressing the vocals or the instrumental passages, there's a lulling buzz to these tunes, with the key ingredients being the earnest male-female vocal harmonies, violin, floating organ, and occasional E-bow guitar and sampling, which are used for intelligent punctuation rather than in-your-face modernism. It's like slowcore music with happier vibes and more melody.

Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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Similar in mood and texture to their 1999 debut A Wave to Make Friends, the Comas' follow-up will find favor with those who found the prior album pleasing, without offering any notable advances or variations. It's not the junkie music of groups like Mazzy Star – the pace isn't slow enough, the mood far lighter and sunnier – but there are some similarities in the lazy, hazy mood and evocative yet unspecific lyrics. When they rock out with a quick-tempo, guitar-fueled indie pop tune with indecipherable intercom-textured vocals on "Wicked Elm," it sounds uncharacteristic and, frankly, not nearly as impressive as their usual modus operandi. No, their forte is tuneful, low-key indie pop, the arrangements considerably more multifaceted than much of their competition, sometimes employing deft violins and synthesizers. It's also nice when they get those male-female harmonies going; Andy Herod has a gentle, likable voice that's far better suited for this kind of thing than many a male half (or third) of such combinations. Sometimes the lo-fi/experimental side of their ambitions comes to the fore, as in the goofily careening electronic washes and burbles of "Free Burritos." Music for lazy Sunday afternoons.

Richie Unterberger, Allmusic.com

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The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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Voted one of the best 2004 albums you didn't hear from both Spin and Rolling Stone, the third release from this Chapel Hill, NC, combo revels in its gloomy indie pop roots. Fuzzed-out guitars mesh with soaring, edgy melodies on a song cycle exploring the collapsed relationship between Comas auteur Andy Herod and TV star Michelle Williams. But you'd probably only know that from reading the press kit, since Herod's lyrics are typically obtuse. Still, there is no mistaking the self-pity wallowing in songs like "Hologram," with lyrics such as "Every time I think of a zero it's me with my eyes X-ed out with a sharpie and frown." The disc kicks off with plenty of sludgy pop hooks roughed up by unfussy production, but gradually morphs into a more internally wracked affair. The sum of these songs equals more than their melancholy parts, and the album works on its own logic. That includes the bizarre three-and-half-minute single organ note that opens "Falling," the closing song. Bits of The Man Who Sold the World-era David Bowie float through this world, but Herod isn't mimicking anything as much as crafting his own style. The singer/songwriter's careening voice conveys the sadness, anger, and angst associated with any romantic breakup, as it shifts from a detached whisper in the pensive beginning of "Oh God" to a frustrated Alex Chilton moan in "Employment" as he sings "I'm just starin' at the ground through the hole in my shoe." There is some pure rocking here in the glam-happy "Invisible Drugs," although even with Herod's smart if obtuse words and sure melodic sense this isn't something you'd play at a lot of parties. The accompanying DVD presents a video vignette for each track, some of them featuring Williams. The short films – a still from one serves as the album's cover art – mix live action and animation in bizarre, often experimental sci-fi pieces that are imaginative if not entirely understandable. Regardless, it makes an interesting, if not essential, complement to the audio disc and shows Herod's imagination and initiative to push the creative envelope.

Hal Horowitz, Allmusic.com

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The Comas - Albums Collection 1999-2007 (4CD)

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After a move to Vagrant in 2005, the Comas set about working on their fourth release, going up to an old mansion in the Catskills with producer Bill Racine to record. What resulted, Spells, certainly bears signs of Racine – who's also done stuff with the Flaming Lips and Rogue Wave – on the whole a much poppier album than what the band has done before. Certainly, the slower, darker motifs found on Conductor are still present, like in "Light the Pad" or "After the Afterglow," but there's also a turn here toward the more upbeat, the more lighthearted, like in the Breeders-meets-the Muffs single "Red Microphone" or the driving "New Wolf." Even the more bittersweet tracks, "Now I'm a Spider," for example, have a Wayne Coyne-esque chorus warmth to them that reminds you that the Comas are a developing band who don't remain stagnant, who aren't afraid to use tasteful synths, if need be (in the darker, Interpol- or Killers-inspired "Come My Sunshine," for example), or dig deep into 1980s lo-fi and jangle pop to find new ideas and sounds. This does mean that from time to time Spells seems a bit disjointed, especially the transition from the first two high-energy songs – "I am a malfunctioning android set on search and destroy!" lead singer Andrew Herod yells, taking a cue from Iggy Pop, perhaps, on "Hannah T" – into the softer "Now I'm a Spider," as if the songs (almost all written entirely by Herod) came from different sessions, from two different moods, but there's still enough consistency in the fuzzed-out guitars, the male and female vocal harmonies, to give a kind of stability to the album and a foundation from which the group can reach out. Spells is both a look back to the past and a push into the future, pop music made from 21st century urban landscapes in rural mountain homes, and though it may not be flawless, it's pretty satisfying nonetheless.

Marisa Brown, Allmusic.com