My Minds Eye

After a failed record as Dream Command, the Comsat Angels were running dangerously close to diluting the excellence of their first three albums. By the early '90s, the group's battles with label and legal forces had snowballed into a daunting mass capable of ending the life of most bands. It would have been perfectly understandable if the Comsats called it quits at this point. They had been around for a decade and had produced four straight albums that, while decent, failed to reach the level of their first three. Prior to the release of 1992's My Mind's Eye, it seemed like a bad move for the band to carry on. It didn't take much convincing for the harshest cynic to realize that My Mind's Eye was a complete rebirth for the band. Sounding little like the group that made the gutless Fire on the Moon, My Mind's Eye could have rated on a blindfold test as a fiery new group only influenced by the spirit of early Comsat Angels. Had the Comsats shrouded this record in mystery under a different alias, it might have received more of the attention it deserved. Instead, a few critics picked up on it and wrote highly of it; otherwise, who's interested in an old band who had one chart hit eight years prior? How many of the original fans are still paying attention? Surprisingly, My Mind's Eye is undeniably muscular in sections but welcomes back the subtle atmospherics that made records like Sleep No More so addictively haunting. For the time it was released, the record stood shoulder-to-shoulder with albums by young'uns like Catherine Wheel and Swervedriver. Moody, lush, and every bit as intensely consuming, the record has a cinematic edge the band wasn't able to capture at any previous point. File under "unexpected treasure." ~ Andy Kellman|