Come were touring behind their excellent 1992 debut album Eleven: Eleven, with their epochal Don't Ask, Don't Tell waiting on the horizon in 1994, when they did two rounds of live dates in the United Kingdom. Their 1992 and 1993 visits included stops at the BBC's recording studios to record live-in-the-studio sessions for the legendary DJ and tastemaker John Peel, and eight of the songs they cut for broadcast have been given authorized release on the 2022 collection Peel Sessions. While neither Eleven: Eleven nor Don't Ask, Don't Tell were given an especially glossy production, Peel Sessions documents this band at their most elemental, capturing their on-stage attack with the clarity a well-equipped recording studio can deliver. These takes manage to be raw and precise at the same time; guitarists Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw could play with uncommon ferocity, but they knew how to weave their performances together in a way that delivered more than the sum of the parts. This is tough, muscular music rooted in the blues but with the burly force of punk and its variants, and Zedek and Brokaw were a truly superior guitar team, with bassist Sean O’Brian and drummer Arthur Johnson their equals in pushing this music into the red zone. For all their noisy calamity, Zedek's songs gave Come a very real heart and soul, and the occasional flashes of joy and compassion alongside the anger and intensity of her vocals lend this music a humanity it would have lacked in other hands. While most of these songs were either on Eleven: Eleven or would later appear on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, there are two numbers that never appeared in studio recordings, and the moody, dynamic "Mercury Falls" and raucous "City of Fun" (about as close as this band could get to a party song) are welcome additions to their official catalog. The LP closes with a version of "Clockface" recorded at a Boston club in 1991, and if it lacks the fidelity of the other tracks, it gets a boost from their interaction with the audience, and confirms what the rest of the set makes clear – that Come were one of the most powerful bands of their day when they were on-stage. If you want a reminder of how good Come were live, or if you missed them back in the day, Peel Sessions is essential. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

1		Dead Molly (Peel Session, 1992)
2		Bell (Peel Session, 1992)
3		William (Peel Session, 1992)
4		Off to One Side (Peel Session, 1992)
5		Wrong Side (Peel Session, 1992)
6		Sharon Vs. Karen (Peel Session, 1993)
7		Mercury Falls (Peel Session, 1993)
8		City of Fun (Peel Session, 1993)
9		Clockface [Live in Boston, 1991]