Comets - Fire The Wake Up Call LP

The Gentle Police? Werewolf Stunts? No, it's Comets! Tynan Cooney and Cal McNamara make for a perfect duo on Comets debut LP "Fire The Wake Up Call"

It would seem like a perfect fit and it is, 2 prolific CT prog-pop legends teaming up for a collaborative effort. While Cal and Tynan are related through marriage, their styles are notably different from one another. On this album they find the best in each other and themselves for an extremely solid release.

Tynan is on music/production and Cal is on vocals/words.

"Fiend" is buzzy and dancy as hell with dope beats. It drifts from super melodic to dissonant with ease. Near opposite vibes co-exist and coalesce. "Brains Of The Operation" feels like an out-doorsy level in Sonic 2, breezy and feeling good. They manage to make complicated moments in what on the surface can seem like a simple song. There are interesting levels and textures to this track if you dig for them.

The title track we heard for the first time over the summer on Q90 (The CTIndie.com Summer Mix) and now with some context we hear it right where it belongs, up front on this LP. There is a super nostalgic quality of this song for the late 90's / early 00's. I hear some "One Part Lullabye" era Folk Implosion. So far this LP does a very fine job of skirting the line between silly and serious.

"Heavy Lifting Dream" is another super solid pop song. Awesome retro drum machine and sweet synth piano fit perfectly with Cal's vocals here. This could be a pretty solid song for the radio. "Trust" could be from several era's dance club soundtracks, super fleshed out and explored.

Another super glossy pop gem is "Esteemed Routine" which has some of that wonderful Werewolf Police looping pop, in a much more delicate and reserved manner. That makes it basically perfect for the vocal harmony force that Cal has turned into.

"Everyone Needs To Buy" starts out like an attempt at a Fake Babies song and quickly takes on its own very specific flavors. Creeping synths swell in and make this a very strange environment for a song. The beats in "Guy With A Purse" are really solid, and despite being somewhat awkward this song is extremely clever with its percussion. Cal goes all Freddy Mercury in "Red Stroller Whore" and he actually manages to pull it off!

"Bay Of The Pigs" is from that perfectly cheesy point in the 80's where drum sets were a thing of the past and reverb was to be put on EVERYTHING. I imagine in my mind a wonderful music video starring Matt Berry.

"Vacant Game" is another fuzzy super pop song. This song is pleasant on all levels, a thoroughly enjoyable dancy pop song great for most any occasion. "Escort" closes out the album along the same line so perfectly laid between silly and serious. Chessy but affecting. Technologically amusing but inescapably catchy. The boys have really gone all out for this one.