The Comsat Angels - The Glamour

"The Glamour" is the ninth and final studio album by the Sheffield post-punk veterans The Comsat Angels, released in 1995 on RPM Records in the UK and Caroline Records in the US. Marking the closing chapter of the band's career before their subsequent disbandment later that year, the album represents a massive structural and sonic shift. It is the only record in their entire discography to feature a five-piece lineup. Following the departure of founding bassist Kevin Bacon, the band recruited Terry Todd on bass and Simon Anderson as a second guitarist. This new blood injected a heavy, near-grunge rockist edge into the music, contrasting thick, muscular riffing with keyboardist Andy Peake’s ambient synth swells and Stephen Fellows’ trademark detached vocals.

Spanning 13 tracks on its initial release, the record showcases an older, seasoned band letting go of their historical minimalist restraint to experiment with long, sprawling psychedelic jams like "Oblivion" and "Spaced". Unfortunately, The Glamour faced widespread indifference from the mid-90s music press and suffered from restrictive studio deadlines that forced the band to leave several ongoing tracks unfinished. Recognizing its overlooked brilliance, the independent label Renascent reissued the album in 2007 as a highly acclaimed, expanded double-CD set. This definitive reissue completely reshuffled the running order and restored seven unreleased period session tracks, providing a comprehensive archive of the five-piece lineup's final studio footprint.

The Comsat Angels’ The Glamour is a criminally ignored power-house of an album, standing as a defiant, thunderous final statement from a band that refused to quietly fade away into the history books. Arriving in 1995 amidst the twin cultural waves of Britpop and post-grunge, the veteran Sheffield outfit did something incredibly rare: they evolved. Rather than attempting to clumsily replicate the skeletal post-punk gloom of their youth or cash in on contemporary indie trends, they integrated a second guitarist and completely re-engineered their signature wall of sound. The result is the heaviest, most physically intense record of their career—a psychedelic space-rock juggernaut that matches raw sonic muscle with decades of atmospheric expertise.

The impact of the new lineup is immediate and jaw-dropping, most notably on the ferocious title track and the blistering opener "Psychedelic Dungeon". The twin-guitar framework of Stephen Fellows and Simon Anderson introduces an aggressive wall of distortion and crunching riffs that the band's early catalog never hinted at. Yet, what elevates The Glamour far above standard 90s alternative rock is the exquisite sonic texturing provided by Andy Peake. His synthesizers act as an icy, swirling counterweight to the heavy guitar noise, ensuring that even the most aggressive movements retain that classic, widescreen Comsat Angels sense of underlying paranoia and space.

Where their iconic 1980s albums were exercises in strict musical economy, The Glamour finds the group reveling in a newfound sense of sonic freedom. They allow their arrangements to stretch out into massive, hypnotic excursions; the towering "Oblivion" and the nearly nine-minute closer "Spaced" function as beautifully dark soundscapes where the rhythm section of Mik Glaisher and Terry Todd locks into deep, unshakeable grooves. Over top of this dense instrumentation, Fellows delivers his vocals with a world-weary, detached cool. He avoids the melodramatic angst of the era’s younger rock vocalists, grounding the sonic chaos in a mature, dignified emotional reality.

Ultimately, The Glamour is the sound of a legendary band having a blast in the studio, totally unburdened by the major-label expectations that plagued their mid-80s career. While its commercial failure is a historic frustration, the 2007 Renascent double-disc restoration proved that the music has aged magnificently. It serves as a vital bridge between classic post-punk and modern shoegaze, standing alongside the finest closing albums of the alternative rock era. For anyone who thinks the Comsat Angels’ story ends in 1982, this heavy, atmospheric swan song is a mandatory awakening.

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1. Psychedelic Dungeon

2. The Glamour

3. Audrey in Denim

4. Oblivion

5. Web of Sound

6. Breaker

7. SS100X

8. Sailor

9. Demon Lover

10. Pacific Ocean Blues

11. Anjelica

12. Valley of the Nile

13. Spaced