This is my second Pale Saints album of 1990, following Mrs. Dolphin, a compilation of the band’s early material. The Comforts of Madness is my first opportunity to hear their debut studio album.

There’s a lot happening in the Pale Saints’ sound. I hear the jangly indie pop and rock of the Smiths, particularly in the guitar work, alongside the hazy atmosphere of dream pop and the layered guitars and noise of shoegaze. Those sounds don’t necessarily take turns. They pile on top of one another, creating something that’s melodic and pretty one moment, then dense and noisy the next.

The album opens with a couple of songs that establish that contrast pretty quickly. “Way the World Is” comes out swinging, with pounding, incredibly percussive drumming that almost buries Ian Masters’ vocals beneath it. The guitars swirl around the rhythm, creating this interesting tension between the force of the music and the dreamy quality of his voice. “You Tear the World in Two” moves in a different direction, with a more psychedelic, late-60s British pop feel. The jangly guitars and hazy atmosphere give the song a softer quality, before it eventually builds into a frantic finale with the guitars trading off against one another.

That dreamy side becomes more pronounced on songs like “Sea of Sound” and “A Deep Sleep for Steven.” Both have a floating, almost ethereal quality, with layers of reverberating guitar creating a hazy atmosphere. There’s still a physical pulse underneath it all, particularly in the bass and drums, but the overall effect is much more subdued. “Sea of Sound” has a particularly melancholy feel, with lyrics that suggest someone watching a person they care about slip away. “A Deep Sleep for Steven” is more intimate and inward-looking, with the sense of trying to understand what’s going on inside someone else’s head.

But this isn’t an album that stays in that dreamy space. “True Coming Dream” breaks out into a much more energetic, melodic indie rock sound, while “Insubstantial” has louder guitars and more prominent riffs. There’s still a dreamy edge to the latter, but it leans more toward alternative rock than shoegaze. “Little Hammer” takes the opposite approach, pulling things back into something delicate and restrained, almost like a song that’s been worn down by its own thoughts.

“Language of Flowers” is probably the most immediately appealing song here, with a catchy groove, bright melody, and terrific vocals. It’s the kind of track that feels like it could have been a hit, and it brings together the band’s melodic and atmospheric sides particularly well. “Sight of You,” which I already knew from Mrs. Dolphin, is another highlight. It’s a wonderfully catchy, jangly song, with chiming guitars and a dreamy layer of sound sitting on top of a very appealing melody. There’s a more direct sense of yearning in the lyrics, too, giving the song an emotional pull beneath all that brightness.

The album closes with “Time Thief,” which brings together a lot of the different things the band has been doing throughout the record. It’s a little darker and more sinister, moving between slower, quieter passages and louder, faster sections. The drums are particularly prominent, pushing the song through those shifts and building toward a noisy, energetic finish. There’s an unsettling image of something slowly draining the people who live inside a house. It’s a fittingly strange way to end an album that can be beautiful, melodic, and occasionally pretty unsettling.

Lyrically, there’s a lot of uncertainty and introspection running through The Comforts of Madness. The songs touch on loneliness, loss, the difficulty of understanding ourselves and other people, and the ways that our thoughts and circumstances can slowly wear us down. There’s a recurring sense of people feeling disconnected, either from someone they care about or from themselves.

Pale Saints may not have had the long career of some of their contemporaries, but The Comforts of Madness is a strong debut. They have a real knack for writing catchy, memorable songs, even when the arrangements take some unexpected turns or get buried in layers of guitar. They’re a good example of the kind of alternative music that made the 90s such an interesting period.

Verdict: Good

Explore more from Pale Saints

Official Site | Spotify | Bandcamp