From: Jonathan Sargeant, acreteam@gil.com.au Subject: interesting review of AENT and SS/RL/P Date: 2/17/2002 3:22:56 PM To: Church mailing list, seance@lists.no-fi.com Saw this review in Brisbane's The Courier Mail newspaper Jonathan S The Church AENT **** (four stars) Noel Mengel Every band with a long history goes into the studio wanting to make an album that's every bit as strong as their stuff when they were young and hungry. Not many achieve it. But several years of sporadic recording at various points around the globe has done the trick for the Church with an album that can stand proudly besides '80's high points like The Blurred Crusade and Heyday. Fans, of course, have always found something to enjoy on Church albums, even when the line-up was reduced to the core of founder members Steve Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper. But there never seemed to be the chemistry that crackled when the band were on a high in the early to mid-80's, when I saw them play some of the finest live shows I've seen by any band, anywhere. However, a spark seems to have been rekindled since founder guitarist Peter Koppes returned permanently to the fray and the line-up firmed with drummer/producer Tim Powles. There was promise of better things with the 1998 album Hologram of Baal and it has certainly been delivered this time around. The difference isn't in the sound. After all these years, it's still elegant, shimmering _ rippling like a cooling summer breeze through a soft curtain. The difference comes this time with the quality and depth of the tunes. If other Church fans are like me, over the past 15 years they will have become used to making do with a couple of strong tracks on each new release. No such problem this time. The filler never arrives. Like all the best rock albums, the sum is greater than the parts, each song in its proper place and flowing seamlessly into the next. It's hard to pinpoint reasons for this return to top form, but inspiration seems to have come in the form of their last studio project, the covers collection Box of Birds. This was a record that found the common ground between tracks as varied as Iggy Pop's The Endless Sea, Neil Young's Cortez the Killer, David Bowie's hit for Mott The Hoople, All the Young Dudes, and a song which could have served as the blueprint for their sound, George Harrison's psych-pop masterpeice It's All Too Much. The band usually pieces its songs together from lengthy studio jams. They might not have changed their method, but the Box of Birds interlude seems to have focused their minds on songcraft again. Opening track Numbers sets the tone with muscular guitar riffs providing the counterpoint behind one of their most appealing melodies in years. And slowly it rolls, each song murmuring into the next, the guitars of Koppes and Willson-Piper building a warm, rich bed of sound. The guitars soar to a high on the majestic Chromium, the kind of tune that would sound superb on radio. Surely somewhere there has to be a place for it between Creed and Cold Chisel. Perhaps no one will ever really now why After Everything is a great Church album when so many previous albums only hinted at former glories. It just is. Enjoy. Also available: Sing-Songs/Remote Luxury/Persia (EMI). Some of the Church's best material in the 80's didn't appear on albums but on these three EPs, especially the 1982 collection Sing-Songs. Several of these tracks have never been available on CD but aficionados and new fans will be impressed by A Different Man, a bright pop-rock number with classic descending riff and Byrds-style jangling guitars, and a version of I Am a Rock that sounds as if Paul Simon had them in mind when he wrote it. It's a surprise to hear these songs almost 20 years later: They gallop along compared with the more leisurely pace the band now favours. It's a pleasure to hear them available again, especially in a country that hasn't been very serious about looking after its rock'n'roll history. Music this good deserves to be looked after.