
I'm leaving P=A alone right now and skipping to Sometime Anywhere. I'll leave P=A for my friend Fraulein to start up. I'm not ready for it yet, so forgive me for going out of order.
SA is IMO, "at the bottom of the food chain." These are harsh words, I know, but this album would not make it to the first round of my "Deserted Island List." Rightfully so, this was a tough period for The Church or what remained of it. Steve and Marty were left to fulfill a contract with Arista only having half a band. I give them great credit in their "staying power." I feel that if it wasn't for SA, the band might not be here today in 2001/2002.
The songs on SA are oddly bold in places, and uncharacteristic for a Church effort. When I listen to it now it is as if each song is it's own experiment and there is no uniformity from start to finish. (It's not bad, just different) There are a lot of peaks and valleys and it is uneven throughout. I don't know if playing the tracks randomly on the C.D. helps. (I don't think anything could pull these songs together)
This is perhaps the most experimental of all Church efforts. Steve and Marty seemed to exercised full artistic license although sometimes, not at the same time. (Perhaps their most fitting album title) I have previously stated, this is less of a Church Album then The Refo:mation disc. When SA first came out, I initially embraced it and felt that it was an interesting direction that the band had gone in, but that wore off very quickly, once news of P.K.'s departure from the line up sunk in. It struck me as a big departure from P=A or anything previous. I realized that the "Church Sound" was what was missing from this album. Today this album sounds more like two solo albums fused together. The intricate layering had mostly gone away, because now there was only two sounds.
Disc two was even more disjointed then Disc One. (Labeled Free Bonus Disc, Free indeed.)
Some of the low points for me: Loveblind, The Maven, Angelica, Lullaby, Business Woman, and Authority. Sappy, Cheesy, uninteresting, and sugar coated are words that come to my mind.
Luke Warm: Lost my Touch (this is actually an O.K. song), My Little Problem (this song almost sounds too pretty for such a dark subject) Eastern (o.k. but I'll use that term: too dense) Two Places At Once, (great idea, good song, but could have been better, I have to turn the damn thing up so loud just to hear it???)
Some of the high points for me on SA are Fly Home and The Dead Man's Dream. Day Of The Dead is a great track (holds up on it's own) and it sounds wonderful LIVE, but they should have saved it for a better album. The art work on the cover is also superior to the album itself. Church fans got to hear T.P. for the first time. Although I'm still unclear what role he played, since most of the tracks sound like a machine or loops to my untrained ears. Also, I grew a great appreciation for P.K.'s contributions to the band around this time. I was grateful to see his reemergence on MATS and absolutely tickled by The Refo:mation. I'll wait a while for those too.
Trout
