"Poor old Comsat's", as Helen Fitzgerald recently remarked.  She has a point.  The same door that ushered in Echo And The Bunnymen and Simple Minds slammed cruelly shut when it was The Comsat's turn to enter.  While the new cant and cocaine hierarchy celebrate on one side, The Comsat's supposedly stagnate on the other.  Not so.

The Comsat Angels biggest problem was always packaging.  Polydor didn't know what to do with them and consequently didn't try.  Jive don't either (clock those dreadful ads in the music press) but at least they're giving it all they've got.

Amid it all, 7 Day Weekend (an ode to unemployment) ironically boasts some of the best material the band have ever recorded.  A fact that'll come as no surprise to their fans as they'll already own half of it in single format.  Tut tut. 

A shift in emphasis from matters temporal to matters personal is reflected by the introduction of veteran funk producer James Mtume but it's Mike Howlett's understated efforts to reconcile Sheffield art with Stateside commerciality that characterises the best songs on this LP. 

No Comsat's fan will be disappointed by 7 Day Weekend and, to that end, they've satisfied their main commitment - whether it'll attract new listeners is another question.

Critical acclaim is a hard act to follow as The Comsat's strange bedfellows The Sound will know.