Comet Gain - City Fallen Leaves (2005)

This album serves as a majestic reminder that whatever mucky shit swamp you've found yourself wading in, whatever despairs or dejections you've found yourself plagued with, there's always a sense of hope, that tiny kindling to make a change and be optimistic just for the sake of giving the proverbial middle finger to the human condition. "Paint a smile upon an egg." There's a lot of elements in this album that you'll hear me talk about frequently with a lot of the things I post on here, because they are the things that interest me emotionally: nostalgia, unrequited love or friendships, and sentimentality in general. These are feelings I used to be entirely composed of, but have been paling within me over the past several months due to my various depressions and anxieties. Listening to City Fallen Leaves today unearthed all that meaning I used to cherish so, and reminded me why I loved this album so much in the first place.

When I first heard this album, it was around the time I was readying to move to LA, and it came as a furious gust of motivation and swept me off my feet. It had been so long since music had inspired me so and lit a fire within me to go forward and live. "The Fists in the Pocket" became my theme song, and I really adopted it in full in regards to my soon to be changing situation at that juncture. For me and my girlfriend at the time, it also secretly became our album. I recall one night right around before I was to leave, we laid around in my room and just drank cheap beer and fooled around and listened to it in its entirety. Not much words were spoken outside of brief flirtatious exchanges in between songs - just eye contact, smiles and physical affection. To be honest, I really miss the time I spent with her and that time of my life in general. I was so alive and full of adventure I could have taken on the world.

City Fallen Leaves is diligent and sincere, fierce and at times tender, rising in intensity, then calming down, then rising again. The "Story of the Vivian Girls" interlude explodes into "Just One More Summer Before I Go" like a tidal wave. Ultimately this record is an anthem tailored for the youth of our generation, for those of us who feel things more strongly than the average working class kid; those of us resonating with sentiment and longing. It understands the frustrations and lethargy that we feel and the hope and nostalgia that we need. Everything that needs to be said is cried out with such vigor in the first track:

if you're looking for me, looking for me
i'll be down there on the beach
if you're searching for me
just like a dream
i'll be somewhere out of reach
the fist in my pocket
the fist in my pocket
sinking into the sea
if you're looking for me, looking for me
i'll be down there on the beach

i remember i forget
the family i called my friends
feeling high in western sky
to be the bold against the shy
full of fire in midnight cries
when you feel the same as me
but you don't know what it means
it takes a lot to be that dude
and drive that long and sing that loud
and be so hard and touch so soft
and feel so much and dream so bright
kiss that fast and wait so slow
never die, feel alone
my baby's in an after bar
she reaches out but i'm too far
head's been blown off in his car
torn his life, well, that's too far
well i can't take it anymore
i can't take this anymore
i can't take it anymore

if you're looking for me, looking for me
i'll be down there on the beach
if you're searching for me
just like a dream
i'll be somewhere out of reach
the fist in my pocket
the fist in my pocket
sinking into the sea
if you're looking for me
if you're looking for me
i'll be down there on the beach

taken in by too much crap
the silver 60s sometimes seems
a fake degree of fakers' dreams
leaves have built up in my friends
hallucinations never end
coffee grinds so we might go
we go for walks, right we talk
nothing changes in our lives
nothing changes in our lives
i can't take it anymore
i can't take it anymore
they're freaking out on the dance floor
they can't take it anymore
we shouldn't take this anymore
we shouldn't take this anymore



Rating: 9.5/10

DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/?8gqy78lfii8gc9t