Scouse sounding inoffensive rock.
In our heart of hearts, there is a realisation at times that perhaps its wrong for art to subjected to the amount of marketing and media manipulation to make it into a sellable product and to bring to the masses. By and large, it can be taken on the chin, not everyone's a monster in the business but to some people, there mere idea of "the man" coming in and messing with their output is against everything on their mind.
Its not clear whether Comeg is one of these people as for all their slating and hatred of the way that record companies operate, their previous willingness to discuss contracts and climb aboard the corporate wagon makes the preening and posturing more the retorts of a spurned lover, as opposed to genuine indie warrior.
Not that this should make any difference to the music but given that a major selling point of Comeg is their self proclaimed righteousness then it does hang over the record strongly.
Very quickly into the record, its obvious that Comeg hold certain influences and concerningly, the spectre of Elo haunts 'Savage.' Elo, for the uninitiated, were not quite the band that is all over the charts today in sampled form, originally they were a weak, watered down version of The Beatles who lacked much imagination and were contrived as much to fill a gap or a place in the market. Their songs were not bad, they were played alright but there was a sheen of plastic and forcedness throughout everything they did and from here, the Elo influence on Comeg shines brightly.
The music flows well, the basslines are strong and pace well throughout the record and it all flows well in a small, sugar coated bundle.
Given that Comeg are extensively a single person act playing all the instruments then there is a consistent quality across the music that perhaps a final punch in the production department that could have kicked the record on. Vocally, Ian McCulloch immediately springs to mind in the tone and delivery but again, Comeg perhaps falls short of this comparison.
'Black Reign' has a murkier feel and seems more upbeat, with the bass line leaning heavily on the riff from 'Peter Gunn' and stands well alongside the rest of the album, which whilst not being poor, sound very similar when, played in one go. Given that 'Black Reign' is an instrumental perhaps allowed Comeg to be freer in his playing or perhaps it indicates the vocals take the edge off the songs.
This stands out even more on closing song 'The World Inside Her Head' where the melody is delivered in a lacklustre manner and would not encourage anyone to sing along, even though some of the instrumental passages are sprightly.
All in all, an okay album that fails to live up to the self-hype and makes the churlish criticism of the Arctic Monkeys on Comeg's website seem amateurish, as well as being factually incorrect. To bring it back to the music, which should always be the way, it's a standard paced breezy radio friendly record, its never going to change anyones life but its unlikely to make anyone turn off in disgust.