Waiting for a Miracle

The Comsat Angels had its catalogue rescued twice in its history, for the first time in 2007 by Renascent (a label that died all of a sudden), and now once again. Just like the last time, each album has all the b-sides, outtakes, and demos. This time however, you get a few tracks more, HOWEVER in my opinion they aren't really needed, since the extra demos and live sessions do not sound any superior to the album versions. All in all, you are getting a good value for your money.HOWEVER, this remaster is not as good as the last one (which is out of print). This new group of audio engineers decided to raise the volume just a tad higher, for some stupid reason that sure sounded smart at the time. As a result, the 2007 remaster from Renascent ends up sounding BETTER (albeit only slightly), with more dynamic range. This new remaster is more compressed, and deserves an A from me, whereas that previous release is a stellar A+.HOWEVER, it should be noted that the 3 tracks that make up their debut "Red Planet" EP (Red Planet, I Get Excited, Specimen #2) were actually audibly IMPROVED for this release, making it superior to the Renascent release at least in that regard, and more pleasant to listen to.Still, you might want to get BOTH current versions of this album, since the booklet with background info is worth it.

Fans of The Sound, Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Psychedelic Furs first LP, and maybe even Joy Division should give a listen. While living in the UK in the late 70's I considered The Comsat Angels to be a great singles band. While "Red Planet" doesn't appear here, pre Polydor I guess, "Independence Day" and "Total War" fit in well as part of their first full length effort. This music represents a fine era in rock music. Headiness, great songs, lyrics that say something, and of course drums, bass, and guitars. I reviewed this because I feel it is an important recording.

Great album, great packaging.

This album includes what is possibly the Comsat Angels best single song: "Independence Day". The refrain "I can't relax/because I haven't done a thing/And I can't do a thing/Because I can't relax" sums up the conundrum of emotional paralysis rather nicely, while the song holds out the promise that the cycle will be broken on 'independence day'. It is, at least, there most compelling and powerful song and it was all over the radio in Boston in the early 80s. Another stand-out song is "Monkey Pilot", which describes the feeling of being used with a bit of hyperbole that is both amusing and a little scary. "Total War" describes a relationship that has gone really, really bad.This band often used very unorthodox arrangements, song structures and combinations of sounds, which gave their music a rather disjointed, off kilter sound sometimes. On some of the songs it seems like the music is constantly poised to take off somewhere and yet it doesn't. This is their way of avoiding cliché, I guess, and it usually works, but may take getting used to. The songs on "Waiting For a Miracle" have a more strained, pent-up feel to them than those of "Sleep No More" (the other CS Angels LP that I have). The latter album is more melancholy and the sounds have more low-end to them sonically.

I had the pleasure to wander into a concert by the Comsats about the time that Waiting for a Miracle came out. I was working in Greece and visiting a friend in London. It was an afternoon concert at the Lyceum with about 6 groups on the bill. When the Comsats came on, both of us looked at each other with that "these guys are really good, I mean really good" look on our faces. Miracle was sparse and wonderful, followed by the amazing Sleep No More, which is the one I play for friends who have never heard of the Comsats first. Living in Europe I got to see them a few times and socialize with them when they did a (honest) July 4 gig in an outdoor venue in Holland. This is the band that U2 was the opening act for when they were just getting going, and I do hear a lot of the Comsats in U2. Though to my mind, Stephen Fellows has a superior voice. Pity that the band didn't get the kind of success that U2 got, as that would mean they would still be together and turning out amazing music.As I said, Miracle is very sparse and in this day and age may be a bit of an acquired taste. But, I always thought how incredible On The Beach would sound in the hands of a great soul singer with a full wall of sound production.As Stephen Fellows would have said:"See You in the Future"Jay

Upon it's release, New Musical Express named it "The Greatest Debut album ever" and once you give it a listen you'll find it difficult to disagree. A breath of fresh air indeed! The Comsats managed to keep their music simple, melodic and captivating and the lack of studio gimmick's left a very organic sound. The greatest novelty of this album is Stephan Fellows voice....he comes off more like he's talking to you then actually singing and it's very effective considering the subject matter. Waiting for a Miracle and the band's second album "Sleep No More" have been two of my all time favorite albums since the early eighties (with SNM being my all-time favorite hands down) - If you're into Joy Division, The Chameleons, the early Cure albums, Bauhaus, Siouxsie, Sisters of Mercy etc....treat yourself.....the Comsats, with stronger label support (they never had a U.S. release of their first three albums but still were popular enough on college campus's to tour with Gang Of Four in the states - both at the height of their careers) could have easily been recognized as one of the greatest bands of all time.

No doubt : this purchase is essential (the band deserves it as well as a late definitive recognition): my only issue is the following. Wishing to know what level of remastering was applied to this work, I opend the wav files in a restoration program, that I used to restore old vinyls and at my big surprise, I saw that some (even lots of) basic clicks and pops were still detected. Also the volume was not put at a maximum. I'm not an expert but i would like to understand why this is so. Is it in order to preserve the original relative volumes of song or some imperfections of the recording? I doubt this because I've done the same thing for other remastered works and I did not show such level of apparent defects.Also some songs show much less of those crackles then others. Why? Did the remasterer suffer from a loss of nerve? Thus not 5 stars.....but I bought all first three albums anyway.....mp3 did not kill the CD star (not yet).....

Great independent band. My favourite track is "Independence day".

Brilliant album, and beautiful re-pressing. It's a shame that it got completely bent over in 2 corners, because the Amazon packaging is not up to an acceptable standard. It's not worth the cost of returning it, and I won't risk replacing it from Amazon, until they improve their packaging.

Brings back memories of why I loved the Comsats all those years ago. Great era, great music.

Expensive but rare bit of high quality Sheffield music history. A very well kept secret. Reassuringly this is soon to be reissued with extra tracks but I couldn't wait. Swift service from this seller