Hellooooo womberynes. Heres my critic to the "The following moment" (El momento siguiente).

What I like:

-Steves voice is in top form! I never recall hearing Steve singing in the high tones he does at the end of the cabaret burlesque nazi Dietrich rendition of "reptile". Its been a marvellous surprise for me. The production and sound is better than EMD, "Its no reason" is singing beautifully, as well as "Electric Lash", "Grind" or "NSEW". The treatment of Martys voice is much more ellegant in the mixing (his voice when he doubles Kilbeys in the verses is lower in volume, which fits much more better, and in general terms he also sings better). In general terms, this is a dangerously quiet album (dont listen to this record while driving!!!) but it can be noticed that they took care of every single detail. However, the album could have been way far better if it wasnt because of:


-CONS: two horrible fillers: "song in the afternoon" and "bordello" are two improvisations based on three or two chords, and I guess they were both recorded at the first take (the guy who mix engineer and mix the record is credited as co-author!!!!), these two songs almost ruins the album and at the end make it non cohesive. Why including these nonsense things??? why???? Another weak point: the inclussion of "Pure chance", a song which I always think of as an experiment and doesnt means nothing in The Church catalogue. On my point of view a boring song. As far as "Comeuppance", is the only proper "new" song, but dont expect too much (apart from a surprisingly frantic Kilbeys bass line), I mean, in EMS there was, in my opinion, a new song which now is essential in the "best of" this band: "0408", this doesnt happened with the new "songs" they present in this album.

As I told its a very very quiet album. Its a nice one, but Id loooove if they turned heavy metal in the next one.

And, I want to talk about Tim Powles: I guess this man is a good drummer, but after listening to this album I realized what failed in the latest Church releases. When I listen to the songs in ULTC, HOB, FY, me as a musician and listener always say to myself "theres something missing here, the song wants to explode, to bloom, but never happen....". Listening to this album I came to the conclussion that the piece which fails is the drumming. I mean, Tim Powles is a jazz drummer, and The Church needs a rock drummer. Tim is the Bill Brufords drummer in the Church, but THE CHURCH NEEDS Alan White-like drumming (Ploog or Dagherty are perfect examples). In MATS the drumming were good, I mean it did fit with the songs, but since HOB the drumming terribly lacks in strengh and continuity...we need power, kick that drums man!!!! When everything seems to blast theres Tim to relax everything and starts with technical bullshit stuff....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Go rock please, Im not praying for another P=A (thats impossible) but I will be veeeery happy if The Church would be able to came out with another album like, for instance, Gold Afternoon Fix.

Overall rating: 6.5/10