By Ljubinko Zivkovic, Rock At Night-The Netherlands
Review: Chris Church’s album Darling Please-Big Stir Records/Spyderpop Records – 2022
North Carolina’s Church is a sort of a veteran on the music scene and a singer songwriter, the kind of which cult fandoms are made. The quality of his music was never in doubt, and he was never afraid to skip from genre to genre without making his music suffer. Somehow though, it seems that his music didn’t reach enough listeners as it should have. There could be many reasons for that, none of which have to do with the music itself.
Proving the point is ‘Darling Please,’ his latest release for Burbank’s Big Stir Records. Actually, it is an album Church recorded eleven years ago, which only now sees its first full-scale release and in a remastered version. So where was Chris Church then and is it music worth a first-time release 11 years after it was initially recorded?
The unequivocal answer to that question is yes, certainly! Church is definitely in a guitar-driven power pop mode here, anywhere on the line that connects Cheap Trick, Crazy Horse and The Posies, all in their best shape and form.
Like with any good power pop, Church has come up here with some impeccable melodies, like on the “Atlantic” and “Bad Summer,” the first single off the album and the guitar sound is ringing with a crunch that is loud but never overbearing, thanks to the excellent production from Nick Bertling.
Church’s vocals are also quite effective, with excellent harmony support from Lindsay Murray (who also designed the sleeve art), particularly evident on the aforementioned “Bad Summer.”
Essentially, ‘Darling Please,’ has that evergreen sound that makes it impossible to say whether it was recorded in the mid-seventies power pop heyday, eleven years ago or yesterday. A power pop must.
Listen to “Bad Summer” HERE:
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Chris Church via Big Stir Records
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