Comet Gain "City Fallen Leaves" (Kill Rock Stars)
By Emily Trinks
Monday. Dec 19, 2:37 AM
Holla, 1997!

It’s common knowledge that the most surefire way to deejay a house party is to pick music from most guests’ early 20s. And when you’re making a mix-tape (or CD-mix, so I don’t date myself too badly) to impress, you have to mix new, hype-y singles with forgotten singles and deep b-sides from au courant bands.

As much as I’ve employ these techniques in my real life, I’ve never really thought of it as a band’s strategy. Enter Comet Gain and their City Fallen Leaves. Having been around, in one line-up or another, for more than a decade, they know that mid-‘90s “nice” indie pop rather well. To that end, this album is a delight. It’s like rediscovering a mix tape that your college boyfriend made you junior year.* You remember it well… he was foisting his burgeoning indie sensibilities and “interesting” record collection on you and wanted to impress with his sensitivity and cleverness. You didn’t love any of the songs, but they were alright enough and you can’t help but smile when you hear ‘em now. It’s like the years just dissolve away.

Unfortunately, the last track, “Nameless,” is frank with the nostalgia: “And mix tapes / are memories / for unseen / histories… what means the most to you / it means so much to me…” I mean, that’s it. That ruins it for me. If there’s one thing that’s meant to exist beyond the self-referential (well, outside of inside jokes, of course), it’s the mix-tape. “We found the sound / of the underground / we felt so proud / to be underground.” For shame. You might think that, but you should never, ever say it…

*Aside: Do you believe that the Tigermilk reissue came out almost seven years ago? And that Different Class hits double digits in a few months!? And that …Morning Glory? already has?
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Emily Trinks

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