Untitled #23
The Church have spent three decades occupying a nebulous space where even the band’s very existence has been questioned. They’ve written and performed pop songs of great compact intellect and appeal while simultaneously mining a slippery, ethereal otherworld where trippy lava lamps flow in uncontrolled abandon. “Cobalt Blue” opens this 2009 set and it’s a four-minute trip of Pink Floydian principle wrapped in a shoegazer’s haze, followed up with the equally psychedelic and swelling “Deadman’s Hand.” This Australian institution have long since given up any claims to the superstardom that once seemed within their grasp when what became “alternative” music in the ‘80s claimed them as one of the leading visionaries. Instead, the band, when its members are not working on their solo careers, now focuses on inventing atmospheres where gravity never holds them back. “On Angel Street,” “Pangaea,” and “Sunken Sun” vibrate with the band’s dense spell working in full force, where the bass guitar both accentuates the beat and often twists the melody in unexpected detours.
Australian band best known in the U.S. for "Under the Milky Way" have kept at it all these years and are still making solid music here on their 23rd album.
After a taste of stardom in the late ’80s, The Church crumbled a bit. By the end of a rocky ’90s, the band settled into a prolific groove, one that continues to this day. The mellow pace of its latest, Untitled #23, is set by the vagabond’s rumination “Cobalt Blue,” and it continues throughout: It’s as if the band…
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