After the first listen to Untitled #23 I made the biggest mistake one can make after the first listen to a new Church album. I made this mistake though I knew it's a mistake: I judged it. I said, the album is "uninspired". Boy, was I wrong! Luckily, on third listen, it made "click" and everything changed completely...

Imagine yourself on a nice walk through the woods. It's a nice, sunny day, and suddenly you recognize something beside the path. It's a big, really big flower, somwhow familiar, somehow unknown. It has one huge blossom which is still closed. You go round it one time, pick up a stick, poke at the blossom a little bit but nothing happens. You think "oh, hm, looks like an ok blossom to me, but it's nothing special." You go around it another time... and you start to feel there is something. You go around a third time. Suddenly the blossom springs open and reveals its magnificent, cobalt blue colors. You're awestruck. The feeling of tears gathers in the back of your eyes. You've never seen a blossom as beautiful as this one before. Untitled #23, however, is not just a blossom in a forest, it's more like stars, galaxies and worm holes of inconceivable size and beauty which blossom and grow on the soil of the universe...

Cobalt Blueprint:
...it's vast, it's immense, it's cinemtic. The blossom opens up and reveals itself to you, especially because of the multi-layered vocals and the shifts in the key (or whatever you call it they're doing with the chords there). I guess that's one of the best openers ever done. (11/10)

Deadman's Hand:
I don't really know what to say about it. Simply genious. (10/10)

Pangaea:
This is a nice tune, but it hasn't grown beyond being "nice" even after dozens of listens. I dunno. I have the feeling that sometimes the instruments don't interweave like on all the other tracks, especially in the verse. Also the way the bass is played (how do you call that? "bumpy" maybe?) doesn't really fit the song. All that doesn't mean it's a bad song, but it's the weakest track on #23. (6/10)

Happenstance:
Good one, really good one. Flows along nice and gently. It gave a nice hint to what the album would sound like when it appeared on MySpace, but it didn't hint to the greatness of songs like "Cobalt Blue" and "Operetta". (8/10)

Space Saviour:
This is a grower. At first listen Steve's way of singing made me frown a bit. But that was just because it has never been heard before on a Church album. Actually, this is a very well done song which never gets boring though the same three chords go through the whole song. Could have been a good closer for the album, but luckily there's "Operetta". (10/10)

On Angel Street:
Another grower. First I thought "what the hell... does this meep meep meep keyboard go all through the song?". Yes, it does. And it's great. Obviously, the "timetunnel" of the first listen had some audio synapses missing which the later "timetunnel" would develop while listening to this song. Today I think that the whole song is built around the meep meep meep keyboard and that without it the song would lack something essential. A sad but stunning song. (10/10)

Sunken Sun:
A song in the spirit of Maya, Paradox and Monday Morning. It's one of these über-beautiful songs, which can, depending on my personal mood, sometimes sound a bit kitschy in my ears. There are times when I can't stand this beautifulness and I skip the track. But that's not a problem of the song. I probably like this one most out of all these über-beautiful songs. (9/10)

Anchorage:
That's the other song on this record which is still only an ok one for me. It's a nice rocker, all the ingredients are there, but it falls back compared to almost all other songs on #23. Also, it's a bit too long, I think. (7/10)

Lunar:
In contrast to Anchorage, this one is much too short, it could rather go on for ages. Here's the cinematic, multi-layered vocal thingy again, already known from Cobalt Blue. And it does a great job. It sounds like a movie, which introduces you into story and characters in its first half. Then the plot point occurs and the movie's dramatic increases heftily. Something is happening, everybody in the film runs around... and suddenly everybody stops dead and gapes at the sky, awestruck, while the new, second moon, which nobody had seen or heard of before, slowly rises at the horizon in slow motion (10/10)

Operetta:
Wow. Oh my god. This song almost makes me cry, but it lets me smile in happiness and contentedness at the same time. Imagine a music TV show, one of these which celebrate something and where at the end of the show all artist gather before the camera again. A hmynal song is played and some confetti is raining from the ceiling. Everybody stands arm in arm, slowly moving their bodys left and right while singing the song. It's a kind of farewell to the show and the audience. It's over, and you shall get the feeling that it was a great time, a great show, but also the sadness of the show's ending enters your heart. Admittedly, most of these TV shows are crap and in fact the end I just described is a bloated, artificial, calculated feeling generated only to turn you into believing that you saw a great show. Now, "Operetta" is the complete opposite of these shows, because it's deeply honest and touching. And, in contrast to these TV shows, it's perfect in creating a true and genuine farewell-feeling. When the song is over, there really is a feeling like "done, that's it, it was great listening to you. Good-bye, you are a great album". Luckily, this is not TV, and if you can convince your CD player that it's perfectly ok and legal to play the same CD over and over again you can gaze in wonder at the opening blossom in the forest again... (11/10)

From an overall perspective, #23 stands beside AENT in cohesiveness, homogeneity and the great flow of the songs. But whereas AENT was built around its epicentre "Radiance", #23 is built up by its two cornerstornes "Cobalt Blueprint" and "Operetta". The multi-vocal thingy on #23, however, elevates the whole album into something stellar, hymnal and cinematic, which AENT is lacking (don't get me wrong here, AENT is a fantastic album).

Conclusion:

  • Most cinematic Church album ever.
  • Most touching and emotional Church album ever.
  • Best SK singing ever.
  • Best Church album ever.

(and if anybody hears me bloating out "uninspired" again, please hit me).

Logic: The principle governing human intelligence. Its nature may be deduced from examining the two following propositions, both of which are held by human beings to be true and often by the same people: “I can't so you mustn't,” and “I can but you mustn't.”