The Church
El Momento Siguiente
14 Track, LP (2007, Liberation)
Related: The Church.
Most bands predictably get worse, until their fans can only say, “It’s their best album since [fill in name of record which came out fifteen years ago and no-one cared for it much then, but it’s a lot better than the tripe they’ve released since]”. The Church had an apparently chronic lull in the 90s, and now somehow they’ve reinvigorated themselves to become as good as, if not better than, they were twenty years ago. This is one of those acousticky forays that revisits a lot of earlier stuff; always loved that ‘It’s No Reason’, ‘Electric Lash’ is a cooler song here than it was originally.
But the best songs here aren’t old singles reworked for seniors who loved ‘em the first time round. The standout tracks are the sumptuous newie ‘Song In The Afternoon’ – take that, Crayon Fields! – and the reworking of 2003’s ‘Appalatia’, as well as the laidback, middle eastern, donkey-driven version of 1990’s ‘Grind’. Steve Kilbey’s vocals are, frankly, too darn loud, but that’s the only criticism warranted. In all other respects, this is an eminently listenable, textured, romantic, seditious, sensuous, paradoxical and addictive work. It’s always nice when the old dogs teach themselves new tricks.
by David Nichols
