To Keep from Crying

Studio album by Comus

Released

1974

Recorded

1973-1974

Genre

Psychedelic folk, progressive rock, progressive folk

Label

Virgin, Dawn

Producer

Roger Chapman

Comus chronology

First Utterance
(1971)

To Keep from Crying
(1974)

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]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
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 written by Roger Wootton, except where noted.

Side one
No.	Title	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Down (like a movie star)"	Wootton	4:06
2.	"Touch Down"	Wootton	4:45
3.	"Waves and Caves" (Andy Hellaby)	Instrumental	1:32
4.	"Figure in Your Dreams"	Watson	3:10
5.	"Children of the Universe"	Wootton and Watson	5:37

Side two
No.	Title	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"So Long Supernova"	Wootton	3:20
2.	"Perpetual Motion"	Watson and Wootton	4:07
3.	"Panophany" (Hellaby)	Instrumental	0:26
4.	"Get Yourself a Man" (Keith Hale)	Watson	7:07
5.	"To Keep from Crying"	Watson and Wootton	5:27
6.	"After the Dream" (Hellaby)	Instrumental	0:59

Personnel

Bobbie Watson – lead and backing vocals, percussion, recorder
Roger Wootton - guitar, lead and backing vocals
Keith Hale – keyboards, 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

↑ Joynson, Vernon (1995). The Tapestry of Delights. London: Borderline Books.
1 2 Semprebon, Rolf. To Keep from Crying at AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-06-19.

External links

To Keep from Crying at AllMusic

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