To Keep from Crying

To Keep from Crying
Studio album by Comus
Released 1974
Recorded 1973-1974
Genre Psych folk, progressive rock, progressive folk
Label Virgin, Dawn
Producer Roger Chapman
Comus chronology

First Utterance
(1971)
To Keep from Crying
(1974)

To Keep from Crying is the second album by progressive folk band Comus, released in 1974. It featured a notably different lineup from their other releases, with the violin/viola and woodwind spots replaced by keyboards and a conventional drum kit. The album's content has also been noted as being more common than their earlier work, centred more in conventional progressive rock and folk.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [2]

Allmusic's retrospective review praised the vocal arrangements and male/female harmonies of songs such as "Figure in Your Dreams" and "Perpetual Motion", and were even more endeared to "dark folk songs" such as "Touch Down", with its "ghostly children's chorus" and "cosmic synth tones". However, they criticized the Japanese issue of the album for editing "Waves and Caves" and "After the Dream" down to well under a minute each and concluded "The record is pretty good, but it has the misfortune of paling in the shadow of its nightmarish predecessor."[2]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Roger Wootton, except where noted. 

Side one
No. TitleLead vocals Length
1. "Down (like a movie star)"  Wootton 4:06
2. "Touch Down"  Wootton 4:45
3. "Waves and Caves" (Andy Hellaby)Instrumental 1:32
4. "Figure in Your Dreams"  Watson 3:10
5. "Children of the Universe"  Wootton and Watson 5:37
Side two
No. TitleLead vocals Length
1. "So Long Supernova"  Wootton 3:20
2. "Perpetual Motion"  Watson and Wootton 4:07
3. "Panophany" (Hellaby)Instrumental 0:26
4. "Get Yourself a Man" (Keith Hale)Watson 7:07
5. "To Keep from Crying"  Watson and Wootton 5:27
6. "After the Dream" (Hellaby)Instrumental 0:59

Personnel

Comus
Guest musicians

References

  1. Joynson, Vernon (1995). The Tapestry of Delights. London: Borderline Books.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Semprebon, Rolf. To Keep from Crying at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-19.

External links