Search - The Church :: Sometime Anywhere

Dear Bishop,

Guylaine Le Ber | St-Hubert, Qc | 11/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My only Church is this one. If song "Fly home" is a sin, I'd rather end up in hell. Listen... detuned at beggining, driven by 5 repetitives bass notes (georgous!), the blue sheen sky dazzles yours eyes (perfect intonation for perfect lyrics), shamefully enjoying that delicate guitar part at 3:45 minutes.



Blinded about "Loveblind", they kept music simple except for the nice middle east touch. Their smartest choice was "the Maven", nice tuna surf type sound on guitar, really like the end of it. I'll move to "Eastern", their melodies are too nice (banjo-violin). Our best day so far is the "Day of the dead" with it's gothic percussion to die for. Then comes my trip to hell ... "Angelica" a highly danceable verbal caress.



Lucifer will have to wait too because I am not finnished listening!



"

The Church's most sprawling, adventurous and longest CD

trainreader | Montclair, N.J. | 07/31/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When I purchased the Church's "Sometime Anywhere," what first struck me was the incredible art work on the cover of the CD. What a dramatic LP cover it would have made, rivaling, perhaps, The Beatle's Sgt. Pepper. The cover includes an Asian palace, Alice In Wonderland type characters dancing, a stodgy bunch of British looking gentlemen posing for a picture a century ago, a flying angel, the sun, ocean waves, a palm tree, Steven Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper, and other disparate items, all bordered by over 50 different strange symbols.



What struck me second about "Sometime Anywhere" was the fact that The Church seemed to now consist of only two members: Steven Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper. No drummer, but far more surprisingly, no Peter Koppes (who, thankfully, would soon return).



Then, of course, the third aspect was the shear length of the album, and many of the songs on it. Disc One consisting of 13 songs, is almost 77 minutes long (which means that the average song length is six and a half minutes). Disc Two adds another 30 minutes to the album as a whole. Now I'm one of those diehard Church fans that liked their first four albums a great deal, loved "Heyday," and "Starfish," but then found a majority of the tracks on "Gold Afternoon Fix," and "Priest=Aura," quite tedious. Therefore, I approached the mega-long "Sometime Anywhere" with a certain amount of trepidation.



However, after listening to the album a few times, I realized that all my concerns were unwarranted. "Sometime Anywhere," contains a suprise at every turn. As never before, the band created a stunningly eclectic work. The album keeps the listener off balance, and one can't predict where it's going from track to track.



The first three tracks, "Day of the Dead, "Lost my Touch," and "Loveblind" are among my favorites on the album. One can obviously see right away that the band is relying more on synthesizers, but to great effect. As with many of their longer songs, The Church excel at conjuring up a mood with their atmospheric textured music.



Some of my other favorite songs on CD One are the instrumental "Eastern" and "The Dead Man's Dream," but to me the best song is "Authority," which is subtle and just perfect. (I know that if I think this way about "Authority," I'm also supposed to love "Business Woman," but I've found the chorus in the latter to wear somewhat thin after repeated listenings). As for CD Two, I can't get enough of the first two songs, namely "Drought" and the "Time Being." I would be surprised if any Church fan felt differently. I also think ""Freeze to Burn" (sort of in the same style as "Angelica" on CD One) is alot of fun.



I guees the reason I didn't give "Sometime Anywhere" a fifth star, is because I think some of the songs do indeed run on too long. Also, there are better Church albums. However, I highly recommend this sprawing, adventurous album, which remains The Church's hardest to pin down.







"