AFTER EVERYTHING NOW THIS

This 2001 album is the first proper listen I've accorded the Church and I'm afraid it was not a religious experience (do forgive the obvious joke ... but somebody had to do it!). After Everything Now This is not a bad album, but of the 56 plus minutes that this album runs for, I felt I was listening to truly creative rock for less than five minutes (some passages in Song For The Asking, Reprieve and Night Friends come to mind). In general what I heard was more akin to the melodic, semi-psychedelic Britpop bands of the 90s and this decade.

I'll defy anyone to show me moments in Numbers, Chromium, After Everything, Seen It Coming and even the opening portions of Song For The Asking that aren't reminiscent of Suede, Blur, Keane, Snow Patrol and a dozen other bands of that ilk (there are even shades of U2 and Coldplay, fer chrissake!). My other half is a huge fan of most of those bands, and she took to this record more readily than I did, while concurring that The Church fitted more naturally alongside "her" music, rather than occupying the slot between Caravan and Circus in my progressive rock section.

Having said all that, I really quite liked this album. The Church have a melodic gift and despite not being that innovative, are rarely boring. My favourite songs include The Awful Ache (with violin and viola contributions by one Jane Seymour) and Radiance, both of which make the most of layered synths and strings to build a powerful atmosphere, Reprive, a strange melange of influences with the Lou Reed nod being the most prominent, and the spacey Night Friends, which is probably the most creative tune of all here. Lyrically too, the band is far from weak, so I really can't claim that this record was a total waste of time. In fact, if this was a general music site, I would have given After Everything Now This a solid three stars.

Not having heard the rest of The Church's vast catalogue, I'm not prepared to comment on just how I would categorise this band, but I think I can safely say that fans of classic symphonic rock aren't exactly going to be tickled pink by this lot. ... 20% on the MPV scale