Search - Church :: Forget Yourself

Power in Simplicity

WrtnWrd | Northridge, CA USA | 02/07/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of the spacier bands to have survived the 80's, the Church continues to grow and experiment twenty years into their career. For all their atmospheric affectations, they really dig deep into some primitive material on Forget Yourself. After the beautifully progressive After Everything Now This, the biggest surprise of Forget Yourself is how much power they find in simplicity. Standouts are many, particularly "Song in Space", which always keeps its rocking feet on the ground, and their best song in ages, "Telepath"."

After everything now this fine album

Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 02/29/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Any band stetching into the quarter century mark would be happy to rest on their laurels. Not The Church. While "Forget Yourself" doesn't rank with their finest albums, it's another formidable stab at creating something new and interesting. Most of the time the album succeeds. Kilbey's elusive lyrics and his warm, mellow voice gain additional depth as time goes on.Wilson-Piper and Koppes' distinctive guitar interplay and their unique solos give even the weakest cuts on the album something memorable. The songwriting is, for the most part, top notch. The opening track of the album grows from the sound of an ominous chord (almost like the reverse of the final chord of "A Day in the Life")gradually growing and blooming into a full blown song. The stand out cuts include the opener "Sealine", "Appaltia" and "Telepath". Each cut goes in its own, unique and interesting sonic direction. For the band's 17th album, "Forget Yourself" The Church continue to challenge both themselves and their audience. It may not be perfection but it's close enough."

Is this the band's last hurrah?

trainreader | Montclair, N.J. | 08/10/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In answer to my above question above, I hope not. The Church has much more to offer. "Forget Yourself" is a fine cohesive effort, although I find much of the album somewhat elusive, in that it's not exactly easy to carry the tunes in your head. Because of the album's sheer length (which includes a second disc of basically what amount to three long Church-like soundscapes), I initially compared "Forget Yourself," to "Sometime Anywhere" which, in my opinion, also merited four stars. However, that's where the similarity ends. "Sometime" had more identifiable songs, which radically changed styles from one to another in a random and unpredicable way. "Forget Yourself" is much more uniform, and, really, not one track takes the listener by surprise, which is to say that the evoked mood remains fairly consistent.



That being said, there are some tracks that I really stand out for me. The opener, "Sealine," pretty much tells you what you're going to hear and serves nicely as a prelude to the remainder of CD One. "Telepath" and "Appalatia" rock a little harder than the others, and stand out (check out the Beach Boys-like beginning on "Telepath." I don't know if anyone remembers the band "Adorable" - they had a minor progressive radio hit called "Sunshine Smile" - but parts of "Telepath" and other bits and pieces on this album sounds alot like that obscure, out-of-print band). I adore the song "Maya," but I could be biased here - that's my daughter's name.



On CD Two, the fourteen minute instrumental "Serpent Easy," and the ten minute long "Cantilever" (which is reminiscent of past Church songs), have a distinctive meditative transcendent quality.



Until they release another album, I've now completed my reviews of all the studio Church albums of original material. Since I like lists, here are the Church albums that I've reviewed, from my most, to my least, favorite:



1a. Heyday

1b. Starfish

3. Hologram of Baal

4. The Blurred Crusade

5. Seance

6. Sometime Anywhere

7. Of Skins and Hearts

8. Forget Yourself

9. Remote Luxury

10. After Everything Now This

11. Priest=Aura

12. Gold Afternoon Fix

13. Magician Among the Spirits



I would be surprised if any other Church fan even comes close to agreeing with this list, because, after all, music is very subjective. But if you're reading this in the first place, I'm sure we can agree that The Church is an incredible, underrated band."