From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V5 #160 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Monday, June 27 2005 Volume 05 : Number 160 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] eMusic alert [Roger Winston ] Re: [loud-fans] eMusic alert [dc ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 12:55:55 -0600 From: Roger Winston Subject: [loud-fans] eMusic alert The new Church album, EL MOMENTO DESCUIDADO, is already on available on eMusic, even though the official US release of the CD isn't until July 26th. It's a mostly-acoustic affair - modern reworkings of some hits, plus 5 new songs. Though they used to be one of my favorite bands, I've been pretty cool on The Church for many years now. Last year's FORGET YOURSELF, which many here and elsewhere seemed to really get into as something of a return to form, didn't really do much for me. This new one may be more my speed these days, since the songs from the past remind me of their glory days. I like what I've heard so far. The arrangements are pretty interesting. Latre. --Rog - -- Distance, Redefined: http://www.reignoffrogs.com/flasshe ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 12:42:17 -0700 From: dc Subject: Re: [loud-fans] eMusic alert On Jun 26, 2005, at 11:55 AM, Roger Winston wrote: > The new Church album, EL MOMENTO DESCUIDADO, is already on available > on eMusic, even though the official US release of the CD isn't until > July 26th. It's a mostly-acoustic affair - modern reworkings of some > hits, plus 5 new songs. > > Though they used to be one of my favorite bands, I've been pretty cool > on The Church for many years now. Last year's FORGET YOURSELF, which > many here and elsewhere seemed to really get into as something of a > return to form, didn't really do much for me. This new one may be > more my speed these days, since the songs from the past remind me of > their glory days. I like what I've heard so far. The arrangements > are pretty interesting. yes! i've had this CD for a few months now, and it's pretty neat. it's part of an acoustic series called "Liberation Blue," in which various Australian songwriters and bands were asked to revisit/reinterpret stuff from their catalogs. the Church offering definitely leans to the latter. sorry "Forget Yourself" didn't do it for Roger; i like it, but i also tend to agree with Mr. Mitton that it works better as an album than as a group of individual songs. i'm not really sure where all the "return to form" reviews came from, since the band used a much rawer studio approach that made the sounds quite unpolished compared to anything they'd done previously. FWIW: their best new song in years, "Jazz," can be found on the recently released "Beside Yourself" collection. meanwhile, the already recorded new album, "Uninvited, Like the Clouds," will be released in early 2006. the church - el momento descuidado The way to make these songs work was to treat them almost casually, says Steve Kilbey. The record was made in two or three days, virtually live. The vocals were done in one or two takes. The trick was to treat them all like brand new songs. They were all fresh, they all had equal status. Looking back has never been the Churchs style. Their first hit, The Unguarded Moment, has been a radio staple for 23 years but the band responsible stopped playing it long ago, to pursue new horizons with a unique determination that continues to challenge and inspire a worldwide audience. The long neglected title makes a stunning return on El Momento Descuidado, a spontaneous acoustic disc that reinvents tunes spanning the bands extraordinary journey. Spiked with five exceptional new tracks, it plays more like an entirely fresh Church album than anything resembling nostalgia. Metropolis and Unguarded Moment sound like music youd hear coming from a New Jersey pier on a hot summer night, Kilbey observes. Subtle structural and atmospheric twists also colour their biggest hit, Under the Milky Way. Almost With You retains its original sea-breeze jangle, but with an Eno-esque vibes solo from drummer Tim Powles, one of many multi-instrumental embellishments that give each song previously unimagined dimensions. Just doing The Church Unplugged would have been pointless for us, says Kilbey. We wanted to really feel the songs, reinterpret them. We wanted to free them, open them up, strip back some of the artifice. We found there were some other songs lurking in there, behind the stiff face of the originals. Of the more recent songs, Marty Willson-Pipers Chromium is a dazzling rediscovery. His concert perennial Tristesse is also transformed, sounding more like a lost gem from Bob Dylans Blood On The Tracks. Peter Koppes expanded palette is another revelation. From piano and harmonica to mandolin, he brings new textures to Milky Way and New Seasons and an evocative melancholy to one of the outstanding new songs, All I Know. From the Midsummer Nights Dream-weaving of November to the rolling country feel of Cows Come Home to the cinematic shimmer of Between Mirages, the new songs mark further progress in one of the most vibrant careers at the enquiring edge of rock. Its not like we just played the old electric parts on acoustic guitars, says Kilbey. That could never work for us. We really put some love into this. Track Title 1 The Unguarded Moment 2 0408 3 Almost With You 4 November 5 Metropolis 6 Chromium 7 Sealine 8 A New Season 9 All I Know 10 Til The Cows Come Home 11 Tristesse 12 Under The Milky Way 13 Invisible 14 Between Mirages ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V5 #160 *******************************