First Utterance is an essential album, and the remastering of it on Song to Comus: The Complete Collection is very tasteful and enough for me to consider it an improvement over the original (apparently the first CD issues of First Utterance had terrible sound quality, so there’s another reason to get this set).

There are also three non-album tracks from around the time of First Utterance: “In the Lost Queen’s Eyes,” “Winter Is a Coloured Bird,” and “All the Colours of Darkness.” Though the first two songs there aren’t as menacing as First Utterance, they are still superbly performed and beautiful. If you ever wanted something more like “The Herald” then those last two tracks are for you. “Winter Is a Coloured Bird” might be the catchiest song the band ever wrote, with the frantic keyboards and the fact it’s the shortest song with vocals the group has ever done.

To Keep From Crying is the group’s second album as they tried to take a more commercial direction. It’s not as bad as everyone says it is. It still has a psychedelic bend to keep things interesting, and Roger Wootton sings like a madman no matter how hard he tries not to and can make the songs still gripping. To Keep From Crying‘s biggest problem then is not the more accessible format but rather the mundane lyrics that aren’t at all interesting.

The Roger Wootton single is unintentionally hilarious and pretty much average. A throwaway really, but whatever. If you want a more detailed overview of any of these releases, try my reviews written individually for them.