plorentz's Full Review: Uninvited, Like the Clouds by The Church
Late in the latest album by the veteran Australian band The Church, titled Uninvited, Like the Clouds, lead singer Steve Kilbey intones (one could hardly call it singing) "I introduced some chaos and I tried to make it rhyme." The line could very well be the band's mission statement, at least for the second half of their nearly three-decade career. When describing the music of The Church, writers invariably develop a heavy dependency on adjectives like "layered" and "atmospheric." The Church is indeed atmospheric, but specifically, The Church is atmospheric, not in that moody, new-agey sense of the word, but in that chaotic, scientific, theoretical, cerebral, and finally meteorological sense. And in that sense, each of the band's albums is fascinating in the same way it's fascinating to watch an early spring thunderstorm approach from across a newly green prairie. The roaring silvers and blues of the clouds, and the occasional flashes of electricity lighting them up from the inside - the god-like scale of it all.
But soon it's overhead, and it's pouring; and soon enough, it's all over. And as exciting as it may have seemed, say, an hour or two earlier, the puddles it leaves are dry in a day or two. And, well, as chaotic and unpredictable - in the broadest sense - as a spring cloudburst may be, one thunderstorm, at least to a non-meteorologist's eye, is pretty much the same as any another. And so it is with The Church. Following the band's career is not unlike watching the weather (without the predictive powers of the Weather Channel). Each record is enormous and beautiful, full of inexplicable phenomena; layers of guitar like layers of clouds, all moving at different speeds, all saying different things about what's going on at each of the various levels of our atmosphere.
It's all beautiful, but not very distinguishable. For instance, I own every record The Church has put out since the end of their brief commercial heyday in the early 90s, and yet, were I to try to come up with a best-of compilation of that time period, I'd be stuck to actually remember specific songs that I like - or even specific songs at all - enough to fill a 70 minute disc. It may all be weather, but it rarely rises to the level of cataclysm. In all that atmosphere, you'll note lots of general patterns, the slow, ominous movements of low pressure systems and subtropical cyclones; and you'll find lots of typically beautiful, sonically powerful spring storms. But very few Blizzards of '78. The Church have become an album band to the extent that they seem almost incapable of creating compelling individual songs. And unfortunately, with each new release, the wonder of their albums diminishes too. After all, by the end of the summer, thunderstorms aren't nearly as thrilling as they are in April when we're still so used to snow.
If Uninvited, Like the Clouds (hey, even the title is meteorological!) doesn't offer much respite from this pattern, it still comes off as probably the best thing they've released since 1992's Priest = Aura (though, admittedly, that's not an uncommon first impression for a Church record), mainly due to a sound that's more rock than clouds.
The album opening "Block" opens the record with promising power - building itself around an amelodic chant-type verse underneath which the band whips up a whorl of sound that grows increasingly elaborate, sucking us all into the song, as it essentially repeats the same simple, ascendant guitar figure over and over again. The song's tempo is moderate, but its march into our brains is relentless, and when, after 6 minutes, it finally releases us from its grips, we're left a little dizzy - but wonderfully so. Then again, The Church are generally at their best on their opening tracks. Which is what makes the rest of the album - or at least the rest of the first half of the album - so surprising. Songs like "Unified Field", "Space Needle" and "Overview" are as succinct and concrete as the band has been in ages - all retaining a misty-eyed lyrical outlook while delivered actual rock grooves with hard edges and well-defined contours. "Easy" goes one better by throwing in some mandolin. You'd almost think that they were - gulp - happy and stuff. In fact, a lot of this reminds me of the band's Heyday (that is, their 1987 album Heyday).
Nevertheless, the very welcome return of the live band sound on the first half of Uninvited, Like the Clouds gives way to a more dour, studio bound second half. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just more of the same thing. Marty Wilson-Piper sounds positively Dylan-esque dishing out the positively Dylan-esque lament "She May Come For You Tomorrow", and the band does manage some moments of winking cleverness amidst all their sobriety. The guitar riff at the center of the strangely titled "Toggle Action" sounds like it was created by flipping (or should I say toggling?) the on/off switch back and forth in an imperfect rhythm unbeknownst to the guitarist. But the album closing "Song To Go..." goes a little too far with the gimmicks. Built over the clacking and wheezing of a harmonium, the song ultimately gives way to a glassy computer-generated orchestra that makes the song sound like the sonic equivalent of a hologram.
Still, the band work up enough good will on the first half to make the second half, at the very least, tolerable; and Uninvited, Like the Clouds is the first album by the band in quite awhile that I actually look forward to listening to all the way through - repeatedly, even - that I can actually picture myself pulling off the shelf for a listen even after the band have replaced this year's model thunderstorm with the next. It may not be the Blizzard of '78, but the severe weather warnings are certainly out.
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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:
"Uninvited, Like the Clouds" by The Church
Cooking Vinyl Records
Released 4/25/06
Produced by the Church
60 min.
SONGS: Block - Unified Field - Space Needle - Overview - Easy - She'll Come Back For You Tomorrow - Pure Chance - Never Before - Real Toggle Action - Untoward - Day 5 - Song to go...
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