From: Ian Gray, iangray@bigpond.net.au
Subject: Review of AENT in "The Australian"
Date: 2/2/2002 1:32:28 PM
To: Seance List, seance@lists.no-fi.com


This review by Sandra Bridekirk appeared in the Weekend Review (I don't
think it's available online):

"Rated: Four stars.

One of Australia's most enduring and steadfastly non-mainstream bands,
the Church have weathered the storms of fluctuating popularity and the
stresses of keeping four people creatively and geographically together
enough to produce 15 albums in 21 years (they ultimately succeeded with
the nucleus of Steve Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes).

Lauded for their debut album Of Skins and Heart and its hit single The
Unguarded Moment, widespread commercial recognition pretty much eluded
the band until 1988 when Under the Milky Way earned them a brief breath
of international fame.

The Church have been gigging sporadically and creating records of
varying quality ever since (the best in the last decade being the
wonderfully atmospheric marathon Priest = Aura) as well as pursuing solo
careers.

Their last few tours have revealed a band of unpredictable performance:
dull and plodding on off nights; deeply thrilling at their best. They
recently previewed much of the material on AENT during a short acoustic
tour, and the mellow nature of many of the songs did not translate
particularly well to the stage.

Always complex, multi-layered and lyrically rich, few tracks in their
extensive repertoire lend themselves to instant acclaim; rather it's
stuff that slowly appeals to the senses, from Kilbey's warm, caressing
vocals to the jangling guitars and subtle instrumentation.

That said, the album opens with the powerful single Numbers, its
chanting structure the most immediately engaging track of the ten. It's
also the track that fits less snugly into the Church sound blanket:
other songs, such as the lovely, expansive After Everything and the
yearningly beautiful The Awful Ache are classic examples of their
timeless, sophisticated brand of adult rock.

Other standouts are Song For the Asking, the gorgeously haunting
Invisible, and Radiance, which is rich with Kilbey's otherworldly tales
of miracles and myth.

Like any Church album, time in the CD player will judge AENT.

SANDRA BRIDEKIRK"  

Some personal thoughts on the review. It's about twice as long as the
normal length of review in the paper. It is intelligent and mature, if a
little troubled. Unfortunately, it felt the need to summarise the band's
career for half of the space, which left less room for comment on the
actual album.

The comments are overall pretty positive, not wholly enthusiastic, but
after all it did rate four stars. (She gave No Doubt's new album two
stars.)

There are a lot of evocative adjectives, but I felt a little bit cheated
by the non-committal, cliched ending. I wanted her judgment now. Someone
unfamiliar with their music would probably treat the ending as a
caution. I've listened to the album twice, not particularly closely yet,
but I felt it starting to develop a character of its own after this
length of time. Perhaps, she could have given it a few more listens and
made up her mind. Though, to be fair, her mind was made up enough to
give it four stars.

Listening to the album again just now, I love the textures on each song.
If you play it next to the Doves and Coldplay, it is multi-layered and
almost painterly, making the other bands seem almost one-dimensional.
There's a sense that the band is trying to re-assert their mastery of a
sound that other bands have absorbed.

There is a sense of melancholy about the album, but there's also a lot
more light and shade in the arrangements. I think we will grow to
appreciate its complexity with every listen. This is a seriously
beautiful composition. Almost a symphony. With another listen, the
melancholy fades and is replaced by a sense that they have perfectly
realized their vision.

The guitars never once overplay, but the stand out is the drumming,
which is consistently stunning (sorry about the rhyme). Also, I never
once found that I had to excuse any part of Steve's singing. He is right
on target throughout. 

For some reason, when I was playing the album, I kept thinking of it as
the next Beatles album after Abbey Road and Let It Be. The Church come
to us from across the universe.

The album cover has got me puzzled.

When you get it, sit it over the top of Heaven Up Here by Echo and the
Bunnymen and compare the level of the horizon!

Instead of the band, there is nothing but sand and that sign. What does
it say? "Do not throw stones at this sign"? "Queue here"? "I don't care
where you go"? "Pilgrim lunatics arrive in a ragged stream here"?

When I first heard Heaven Up Here, I felt the band were looking toward
Ireland and the migration of the Irish to the port of Liverpool.

With AENT, there's a hint of great barren land or savage shore, yet some
stunning, sophisticated, spiritual music has emerged from the
desolation. Thanks, guys.

There's a nice review here:

http://www.playlouder.com/review/458church.html

Lyrics here:

http://homepage.mac.com/fipster/church/lyrics/church/20-aent.html

Inkster