Kult ov Bela - The Church "After Everything Now This" CD Review
The Church
"After Everything Now This"
Thirsty Ear Records
The Church's latest release, After Everything Now This, is by my accounts their best. Some of you may be wondering, "What's a review of The Church doing on a gothic/industrial site?" Others of you may be questioning, "Who's The Church again?" To the latter bunch, I'll use my typical response -- see 1988 and a song "Under the Milky Way" (keep in mind that was seven albums ago and that wasn't even close to their first single). For the first bunch, I need only to refer to a line of the new CD: "After everything, now this happens./It's not a grand illusion/It's a stupid little trick/ The show must go on--/This people have pain." If the dark vein of gothic and industrial music is about anything, it's about sharing pain: the pain of life, the pain of love, the pain of beauty; the list goes on into infinity. And that truly is what The Church is about, the sharing of collective pain down into the individual experience of pain. This line too shows the balance of faith and cynicism that is embodied in The Church, not just in the lyrics but in their sound ... from Marty's rock-god guitar to Koppes's pop angel riffs, in Kilbey's sinister slink of bass and in Powles fluid drums. This paradox I think both the gothic and industrial crowds can appreciate.
Now, back to my review. What makes this album different from all the rest is its epic quality. It hearkens back to just about every phase of The Church, not just late eighties and on. There are echoes of old school Church, back to their pseudo punk day (they even have song "chromium" that I swear is a reference to classic Church "Chrome Injury"). The wide range of instrumentation adds as well to this epic quality. We don't just hear the basic four instruments but also a wide range of pianos (wurlitzer, ambient AND grand), a violin and viola and even a Swedish rail train. Overdubs of vocals, drums and guitars are featured widely and complete the expansive feel of the album, an album that already feels a part of the ages.
Yet The Church, ever the band of dichotomies, brings to this album an even more intense intimacy. Lines like "All this waiting brings me down" and "I never knew what I was waiting for/And when the moment came I was looking away," bring home the humanity not just of the band but of the circumstances of their inspirations. In "radiance," Koppe's delicate strings and Marty's throbbing Rickenbocker are enough to make me weep. The bare elegance of "night friends" is breathtaking with the symbiotic rhythms of the bass and drums and the grace of the grand piano. "reprieve" highlights the sweetest words I've ever heard fall from Kilbey's voice, "When you smile, you make this whole damn thing worth while;/When you smile, reprieve is gonna come down." (it's also the first time I've ever heard a beloved compared to a Buddha).
That's not to say that there aren't some blaringly "rock" moments. Indeed, "reprieve" has some definite soaring guitars as well as a jazzy, nearly dirty rhythm in the back. "seen it coming" has a downright Beatle-esque harmony. "invinsible" swings with a hearbeat bass and doppler cymbal. As I said before, this album is epic; it encompasses not only all their stages of development but it bridges many genres of music as well, all the while taking the listener through a gambit of emotional states.
I myself don't know that I could pick a single favorite song, though I've listened to the album an ungodly number of times; if it were vinyl, the grooves would have long be worn away. I will admit I find myself singing the lines from "seen it coming" quite often: "You should've seen it coming,/been coming for so long./You got the broken heart." And I love the mirror visions of "night friends" while "waiting for other worlds to meet up with our own." But really, the whole album is divine. If you haven't been a devotee of The Church, after everything now this would be a perfect album to begin your worship.
Guest Review by Paige Haggard
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