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Album
First Utterance
Comus →110,272 listeners1,643,036 plays
psychedelic folkprogressive folkfolkfreak folkpsychedelic
about this album
First Utterance is the debut album by British progressive folk band Comus. It was released in 1971, with the opening song "Diana" being released as a single. The album is notable for its unique blend of progressive rock, folk, psychedelia, and elements of paganism and the macabre. The overall thematic tone of the album is of vulnerable innocence facing abusive power, with songs dealing with such themes as violence ("Drip Drip"), rape ("Diana", "Song to Comus"), and criticism surrounding electro-convulsive therapy ("The Prisoner"). These themes contrast starkly with the acoustic sound of the record, featuring acoustic guitar, violin, flute, and lyrical, almost Arcadian, female harmonies. References to the album by other bands and artists include Opeth, citing its lyrics in album and song titles and tattoos. For example, in 1998, Opeth singer and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt used part of a sentence from "Drip Drip" for the title of the album "My Arms, Your Hearse" (the full line being "As I carry you to your grave, my arms your hearse") and on the 2005 Opeth album "Ghost Reveries" the title of the track, "The Baying of the Hounds", was derived from a line in the song "Diana". Experimental outfit Current 93 covered "Diana" as the opening song on their 1997 album "Horsey". User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
