The Album Club: "The Blurred Crusade" by The Church
 

http://www.trollheart.com/crusade.jpg
First effort from Neapolitan as an actual contributor. Let's try to be nice, people! Comment, rate, review, vote and discuss here.

I’m gonna go ahead and break the ice a little early on this one. I had never heard it before so I’m going off one initial listen. I cannot believe what beautiful hidden gem this is! This is why Music Banter pays dividends. Waking up on a Sunday morning and discovering this. This record wonderfully encapsulates that certain triumphant pop sound that defines so much of the 80s. I don’t want to overstate what I understand from such a new discovery but my initial reaction is why wasn’t this floating around in my head like Talk Talk Talk and After the Snow? Better late than never. Great pick!

The Church- The Blurred Crusade (1982)


Best Tracks: When You Were Mine, Field of Mars, You Took


Weakest Tracks: An Interlude, Secret Corners.


To be honest, I always thought of the Church, particularly later period Church, as kind of ‘meh.’ Their albums are certainly listenable but, in general, they don’t really hit it out of the ballpark for me.

This is an earlier album though, and they sound fresher than they would later. At their best, they stay close to their jangly pop roots. I especially liked When You Were Mine in that regard. There are a few songs that I would rate as ‘meh’ though none that I actually dislike. A few songs I like quite a bit, notably the songs I have in my best tracks. Overall, it’s a decent collection of modern folk rock.

So, I’m going to rate it a like. Nice pick, Nea.


7/10 (the Word has spoken :D)

Gotta agree with rubber on this one. It's a decently good jangle pop record that lacks many particularly unique or exciting elements, but isn't bland enough to drown out my enjoyment. I also agree that When You Were Mine would be a favorite, alongside To Be in Your Eyes.

7/10 AKA Liked it.

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Anyone can vote, or comment. You just can't suggest an album. Gotta be on the Greenlist for that. Anyone who's no-one is on the Greenlist. ;)

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We're glad to have you. :) The more the messier. Sorry, I meant to say the mole the messier. No, that's not it. What was it I meant to say? I get so confused... what time is it? Are those my feet?

:whythis:

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Old people get confused easily. Also, it's funny.

Thanks. In a way that is all what I was looking for: one person to connect to the music of The Church.

https://i.imgur.com/JEQK3kq.jpg?1
^ click the jpeg for a vinyl recording on YouTube complete with skips.

This one was a "meh" for me. Never got into them back in the day and the passage of time hasn't changed my opinion of the band. They sound like a lot of other bland, boring, early 80's/mid 80's pop/rock groups of that time. The musicianship is good but nothing in the music, lyrics, or vocals stands out or seems particularly exciting. The production sounds typically bright/clean and treble oriented for albums of that style and time, which is something I've never liked. If there were any rough edges to the music, it's as if they were smoothed off and polished to the point of blandness.

The last 3 tracks were the only songs I found slightly interesting enough to listen to a second time but I probably won't return to them again. Not a particularly bad album, it just went in one ear and out the other without captivating my attention or imagination.

5/10

Before I ever became a member of Music Banter I would recs from articles from guitar rags I find here and there. I've read about Television, Nick Drake and Sonic Youth before I ever heard one note by them. I always have a special attachment to recs that come from guitar players. In those interviews I found out who influenced Steve Howe: Les Paul, Chet Atkins and Wes Montgomery. I thought since they were his influence I had to checked them out. They became my favorites as well. So long story short, I've seen this band mentioned by Peter Buck and the Edge. I thought well if they mentioned them I have to checked them out. I was thinking here Peter Buck from Georgia and Edge from Ireland and they both mentioned The Church? Who are they? I gotta hear this band. So I did and I was hooked.

I've also read that The Church mentioned The Beatles, the Stones and Pink Floyd as an influece. I hear other similarity between other bands though I am not certain. When I hear Marty Willson-Piper play the twelve string I think more of Roger McGuinn that anything else. I don't think of every other Jangle pop band. In fact if anything The Church were more ahead of the curve for neo-Psychedelia and ethereal sounds. It's more likely they were influential to other 80s bands.

My main interest are guitar bands. I think The Church especially in their early days are one of the best. However another one thing I think that really set them apart from other bands is the singing and the lyrics. I love Steve Kilby's voice, I think it is one of the best in Rock. When I hear him sing I am always trying to figure out who sounds like, and in my opinion I think it comes down to this: Steve Kilby is blend of Ian Hunter, Marc Bolan and Peter Perrett. Not so much the exact vocal style but the sound of his voice. Steve Kilby is also one of my favorite lyricist. His lyrics are very imaginative and can paint an incredible story with a few words. Fields of Mars and A Fire Burns are good examples. Both are tied as my favorite songs on the album. All the other are tied for second. There isn't a bad song on the album.

Blurred Crusade came out in '82, the same year as Shabooh Shoobah. I never met anyone who knew of The Church, plenty who knew INXS. I always thought that The Church had an individual sound that got under my skin, and the songs are dear to my heart. They truly are a band of skin and hearts.

Since this was my first go I wanted to pick an album that would work for everyone - or more realisticly something that would't offend the majority. I was thinking of Dystopia but I thought well Nadia Oh! didn't go over so well, so I forego that album. I also thought of Gash but thought it would be too divisive for the club cause it is so left field. I thought The Only Ones would be too raucous of a Rock album so I ditch that idea too. The album I finally settles on was Release Me by The Like, but strangely enough rubber soul picked that album. I am still calculating that odds, of all of the million of albums that were ever release we were thinking of the same album.

I am not familiar with the crowd so I have no idea how to gauge my pick. Sorry if anyone found this to be too disappointing pick to participate it. I thought a good pick would help the Album Club - the better the album the better the Album Club, imo.

Man, anyone who can’t see this is a lost treasure is lost.

I will say that I'll take the Church over INXS any day (though Midnight Oil is my favorite Aussie band). I also discovered during my project that Starfish is actually going to make my top twenty-five when the time comes so maybe later era Church isn't all meh :)

It's like someone thought that, hey, Midnight Oil is a little bit too exciting, so lets replace the singer with some guy from the local karaoke bar and replace any musically interesting bits with cut-rate U2.

Pleasant music, I suppose, but I guess I see why I've never heard of this band. I definitely don't see anything about them that stands out, compared to so many other 80's bands in a semi-similar vein.

"What's a hook? Who needs them anyway. This isn't radio oriented music after all - oh wait, it is! ****! We forgot the hooks! Oh the horror! Well... too late, the album is all wrapped up and we're too nice and docile to make a fuss."

Occulthawk, no one considers this a lost treasure, because it isn't one.

Just kidding. I'm not good at playing the opinionated jerk. But I personally find this album tedious and unremarkable.

Disliked it somewhat as I couldn't stop checking how many songs were left for me to go through.

Church. :)

It's far from my favorite Church album, but it's still very good. "I'm Almost With You" in particular is a classic.

Oh brother

At the time, records like this were selling like cold beer in hell in the states. It did well in Australia and there’s tons of bleed over in taste. I’m pretty sure if it were released and marketed this would have elbowed its way into American pop culture. Taken in a historical context from an American perspective, maybe more-so if you lived through the 80s and actually care (not implying that anyone here doesn’t) then this really is one that got away. Again that’s why I think it’s an especially good pick.

It makes sense, and I was sort of joking. Mostly.

It still boils down to if you like it or not. Obviously, I do like it.

You've never heard of The Church? The Blurred Crusade, being an early album, is not as well known, but their late 80s/early 90s stuff was fairly popular. At the very least, most people know them for the song "Under the Milky Way Tonight":

There are so many 80's bands where I can't name a song by them, but then I hear a song and go "oh right, I know that song!". I had a moment like that with three Spandau Ballet songs recently.

The song above doesn't ring any bells at all. Maybe I'm just not quite old enough for it to have been unavoidable, or maybe it just never really played anywhere in Northern Europe.

Under the Milky Way was all over the States. It was huge on MTV especially. Even now that song seems still kind of bland. A better song from that period came a little later called Metropolis.

I liked this when it started, then I rapidly lost interest as it seemed to be pretty much the same thing all through. "To Be In Your Eyes" stood out though, and I thought maybe the album was turning a corner, especially since the next track was really good, too. But then it slid back into mediocrity and at the end I was left thinking "so what?"

Voted meh.
6/10

Love The Church but not aware of this album. Priest=Aura (Thanks Jansz) is the finest. Will listen later.

"Metropolis" is good, but "Grind" is the best song on that album.



And as Goofle mentioned, it was their next album, Priest=Aura, where they really hit their peak.

Not that familiar with The Church at their early stages (big Priest = Aura fan here too) but this was a nice slice of early New Wave / alternative or whatever the promoters called it in the U.K.

Few standouts: 'Just For You' has a nice Baroque underpinning, 'To Be In Your Eyes' reminds me of The Cure in some ways, and of course 'When You Were Mind' has a great bassline and overall melody. But besides those three the album seemed more monotonous than it had to be, like Blue Oyster Cult without the head scratching weirdness or The Psychedelic Furs without Todd Rundgren producing. :wave:

6 out of 10

Nea invited me to listen to this one. I haven't done that yet but I have every intention. There ain't enough hours in the day.

There are precisely twenty-four hours in the day. :)

I know it took me like 3 weeks but I said I'd listen and I keep my promises. Nea invited me to listen to this because he knows I like jangle pop and I was not disappointed.

When You Were Mine is a fantastic example of 80s pop rock. That one song goes through so many shifts, constantly surprising and interesting.

Anyways, then I got distracted from writing my the Men's Figure Skating Finals but the album was great, really enjoyed it.