Friday Has Its Moments
Posted on | February 1, 2008 at 11:41 pm | 9 Comments
First of all, I want to mention that it was freakin’ thundering and lightning-ing during a minor snowstorm tonight. I don’t remember that ever happening before. What hath Al Gore wrought?
Haven’t done one of these in awhile:
Artist: The Church
Disc: El Momento Siguiente
Released: 2007
Number of Tracks: 14
Total Disc Time: 66:44
The Church is one of my all-time favorite bands. This album has been out for a year, and I didn’t even know about it until it showed up on someone’s year-end Best of 2007. That’s partly because it hasn’t been released in America, not even on eMusic like the band’s other recent albums. It’s only available over here as a pricey import. I got my copy from CD-Wow, which was the cheapest I could find (though I didn’t look very hard – I’ve dealt with CD-Wow for imports before, and despite their user-unfriendly website, they’ve never let me down).
This album (which translates into “The Following Moment”) is a sequel to their 2005 album El Momento Descuidado (”The Unguarded Moment”, the title of their first hit). Like the earlier album, it’s an “acoustic” reworking of some classic songs from the back catalog, along with some new pieces, including a cover of The Triffids’ “Wide Open Road”. When I say “acoustic”, I mean that the instrumental arrangements use mostly acoustic instruments, no electric guitars or synths. But that doesn’t mean that the songs are stripped bare – many have full arrangements with drum, bass, piano, multiple acoustic guitars, violins, vocals, background vocals, etc. They’re just somewhat subdued reinterpretations of the original songs.
This kind of thing usually worries me, because it’s an indication that the band has run out of new ideas and is just rehashing their past. But at least they did include some new songs on both albums, and there was a normal album (Uninvited Like The Clouds) released between the two. So, the band does still probably have a little life left in it. And some of these songs do beg for a reimangining, which breathes new life into them and maybe makes you appreciate the song better hearing it in a different context.
Just because it’s “acoustic” doesn’t mean it’s watered-down. For example, the song “Grind” somehow sounds more menacing in this new version. “It’s No Reason”, which was a lovely song to begin with, sounds even more pretty and natural. It’s pretty cool hearing the signature guitar riff from “Reptile” being played, slowed down, on a piano. The new version sounds like some sort of ersatz jazz/lounge take. “Comeuppance”, a new song, is a very nice closing instrumental. Some songs, like “Two Places At Once”, don’t sound all that different from what I remember their original versions sounding like.
Generally, I was pretty pleased with the album. The new versions don’t necessarily improve on the originals, for the most part, but they don’t detract from them either, and can stand on their own. However, I had one huge problem with it. My all-time favorite Church song is “Tantalized”, and it’s redone on this album. I was really looking forward to what they would do with it, and it’s the primary reason I shoveled out the import bucks. But I was sorely disappointed. This version is a drugged-out middle-eastern drone that musically has nothing really in common with the original. If it wasn’t for the lyrics, you wouldn’t even know it’s the same song. Part of me can’t help thinking that maybe it’s a big “fuck you” to the fans. Steve Kilbey (the Church’s main man) has made no bones of the fact that the album “Tantalized” came from, Heyday, is his least favorite Church album (it’s my favorite, as well as being one of my all-time top 5 albums). I believe I read one interview where he said that Heyday is the furthest thing from what The Church is “supposed” to be doing, because it was too to “rock”. Nevertheless, he does seem to have a fondness for the Heyday songs “Myrrh” and “Tristesse” (which was covered on the previous acoustic album). Anyway, thanks for forever ruining one of my all-time favorite songs, guys. Ah well, I’ll always have the original.
Speaking of Kilbey, one of the customer reviews of this album on Amazon speaks way too glowingly of Steve and the band, and says “Steve KIlbey is not only a supreme singer, he is also a poet, an artist, a spiritual sage, a painter and a diehard philosophical vegetarian”. God knows we need more philosophical vegetarians! Janet… Sue… doug… step up there.
Worth the CD buy? Probably not at import prices, unless you’re a diehard fan like me (or a diehard philosophical vegetarian). Although… I don’t know… these new versions might turn some people into new fans. If it were on eMusic or iTunes or somewhere, I’d say it’s worth a download. If there were a cheap American version, it would be a no-brainer.
Jogged Today: Yes (@ 33°F)
Songs That Came Up On The iPod While Jogging:
- “In Her Disco” (Possum Dixon)
- “Autumn Stars” (Bill Nelson)
- “Floating” (Moody Blues)
- “Bass” (Robyn Hitchcock)
- “Tomorrowland (The Threshold Of 1947)” (Bill Nelson)
- “Betty and Me” (Jonathan Coulton)
- “Sleeping in the Lion’s Mouth” (Thunderbirds Are Now!)
- “Sleeping Through Heaven” (Game Theory)
Pet Peeve of the Day:I had one, but I forgot what it was.
Latre.
Comments
9 Responses to “Friday Has Its Moments”
February 2nd, 2008 @ 12:31 am
First of all, I want to mention that it was freakin’ thundering and lightning-ing during a minor snowstorm tonight. I don’t remember that ever happening before.
Halloween, either your or my senior year, whatever the year was we had the party over at JZed’s. There was the usual Halloween snowstorm, and as I recall, Randy almost got zapped by a thunderbolt on his way in.
February 2nd, 2008 @ 7:13 am
Your memory is better than mine.
From Channel 9 today: ‘Thundersnow’ rare, but it can happen
February 3rd, 2008 @ 11:24 am
Kilbey doesn’t like Heyday?
I wish I could find the interview online where he said that, but I think it was a print article. Now he’d probably say it’s a classic.
Side 1 of that album (see, I’m an anachronism, too) is about as perfect as such things can possibly be.
If you extend side 1 to include the first song of side 2, I would agree!
February 3rd, 2008 @ 10:41 am
Kilbey doesn’t like Heyday? Goofy. Side 1 of that album (see, I’m an anachronism, too) is about as perfect as such things can possibly be.
February 4th, 2008 @ 4:01 am
“Steve Kilbey (the Church’s main man) has made no bones of the fact that the album “Tantalized” came from, Heyday, is his least favorite Church album”
Really?? I’ve read and heard a lot of his interviews and I don’t remember ever hearing Steve say Heyday was his least liked or even one of his least liked Church albums. What I’ve heard him say has always been the opposite — that Heyday was one of the band’s best albums. I have heard him say several times that he doesn’t like the horns on several of it’s songs. The albums I almost always hear him pan are Gold Afternoon Fix and Magician in the Spirits (doesn’t mean I can’t like them though!
).
And maybe you will be interested to know the band is working on a new album right now. I don’t think they currently have a US label and the last I heard they weren’t seeking one (although that may change) so I wouldn’t count on finding it easily or cheaply in any stores here.
February 4th, 2008 @ 4:03 am
oops…that should be Magician Among the Spirits.
February 4th, 2008 @ 9:54 am
I wish I could find that original article. I think it was in Musician Magazine from many years ago, and had the band members giving their comments on the back catalog. I could easily be misremembering what he said, but since it stuck with me all these years, I don’t think so. More likely I was misinterpreting Kilbey. And I’m sure he’s been known to change his opinions over the years.
Magician Among The Spirits is by far my least favorite Church album. It’s nigh on unlistenable. So I’m glad Kilbey and I agree on that! GAF is okay though.
Thanks for the info!
February 7th, 2008 @ 4:47 am
It’s also very possible SK was just in one of his moods when he was doing that interview too. He can be a cranky and even combative guy sometimes, but he really is trying to be nicer and less irritable. For the most part it seems to be working too.
MATS has never been my favourite Church album, but the reconfigured version which drops one song and adds four others, titled Magician Among The Spirits Plus Some works better for me. I have to be in the right mood and I skip some songs, but it’s ok. I remember saying to one guy that I didn’t think MATS would ever be on anyone’s list of great albums and he looked like I just kicked his puppy. Just goes to show every album made has it’s fans.
February 7th, 2008 @ 6:18 am
I can’t believe I actually bought MATS+ after I was so thoroughly disappointed in MATS, but I did. Guess that’s the kind of fan I am. It was definitely better than the original release.