Kleenex Girl Wonder

***For KLEENEX GIRL WONDER, it’s been nearly 20 years of agony and joy, 20 years of stupid GBV comparisons when it’s obvious to anyone paying attention that KGW mastermind GRAHAM SMITH is the Ray Davies of his generation—except Smith watches the world go by on his screen instead of from a window. And now comes The Comedy Album. Clocking in at nearly 76 minutes, it’s KGW’s defining statement, their magnum opus (magnum hopeless?). It goes emotionally deeper than KGW’s ever gone before—more desperate, more despairing—and yet it echoes all the great moments that have come before. Not The Comedy Album as in a collection of jokes. The Tragedy Plus Time Album would be more accurate. Because even as Smith likes his melodies catchy and saturated with hooks, he likes his humor dark and buried in bleakness.