To Keep from Crying

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 sounding more mainstream than their earlier work, which centred more in conventional progressive rock and folk.[1]

To Keep from Crying
Studio album by
Comus
Released1974
Recorded1973-1974
GenrePsychedelic folk, progressive rock, progressive folk
LabelVirgin, Dawn
ProducerRoger Chapman
Comus chronology
First Utterance
(1971)		 To Keep from Crying
(1974)

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
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 tracks are written by Roger Wootton, except where noted.

Side one
No.TitleLead vocalsLength
1."Down (Like A Movie Star)"Wootton4:06
2."Touch Down"Wootton4:45
3."Waves and Caves" (Andy Hellaby)none1:32
4."Figure in Your Dreams"Watson3:10
5."Children of the Universe"Wootton and Watson5:37
Side two
No.TitleLead vocalsLength
1."So Long Supernova"Wootton3:20
2."Perpetual Motion"Watson and Wootton4:07
3."Panophany" (Hellaby)none0:26
4."Get Yourself a Man" (Keith Hale)Watson7:07
5."To Keep from Crying"Watson and Wootton5:27
6."After the Dream"none0:59

Personnel
  • Bobbie Watson – lead and backing vocals, percussion, recorder
  • Roger Wootton - guitar, lead and backing vocals
  • Keith Hale – piano, organ, electric piano, synthesizer, marimba
  • Andy Hellaby – bass, autoharp, tape effects
  • Gordon Coxon – drums, percussion

Additional musicians
  • Philip Barry – bongos
  • Lindsay Cooper – bassoon on "To Keep from Crying"
  • Didier Malherbe – saxophone on "Get Yourself a Man"
  • Tim Kraemer – cello on "So Long Supernova"

References
  1. Joynson, Vernon (1995). The Tapestry of Delights Archived 2011-08-25 at the Wayback Machine. London: Borderline Books.
  2. Semprebon, Rolf. To Keep from Crying at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
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