THE BLURRED CRUSADE

[Second in a chrono series] The Church's second album finds the band applying a little bit more of their growing proto-progressive sensibilities. "When You Were Mine" shows a greater songwriting discipline and direction than anything thus far. Each section is well-conceived, and compositionally tighter. Essentially, the song is a concise "pulling together" of all they learned from their debut album. "Fields of Mars" includes the band's first overt use of keyboards and "texture," with slight Floydian overtones. And although the band sounds a bit "tentative" in this approach, it is nevertheless a good beginning. "Just For You" is an interesting, almost folk-rock song with a very Dylan-esque lyric structure. "You Took" harkens back to "Is This Where You Live" (from "of skins and heart"), with an extended multi-section song structure. Still a bit "tentative," but clearly learning. (The song also contains sly references to the titles of both this and their debut album.) As with "of skins and heart," the album as a whole has little to recommend it (other than good songs), except that it represents the continued growth of the band.

Church's second album is almost an identical clone of their first, of Skins and Hearts. I hate to say it but the first few albums by the church are mellow and boring along with most of the other stuff which "Popped" out of the 80's. The guitar work is surprisingly good on The Blurred Crusade and it is honestly the only positive thing I can say about this album, it really is not prog at all. In spite of my negativity The Church did make some very good albums in their later years in particular Priest = Aura and Forget yourself which show signs of Psychedelic/Space Rock influences. The best song on the album is You Took but Fields of Mars is okay as well. 3 stars all up.

This album, like the previous "Of Skin And Heart", is a pop-rock one that could be compared to some works of The Cure, in the fashion of the "New Wave" of the early eighties. I can't find any progressive moment here, though I like some songs. and the album cover! The opener "Almost With You", with a nice guitar solo is my favourite song on this album. Not bad also "Just For You", "A Fire Burns" and the dilated "You Took". Anyway, in the whole, nothing special, just a good collection of "guitar pop" songs.

Everything about "The Blurred Crusade" is an advancement on the Church's previous, debut album 'Of Skins and Hearts.' The guitar work has more depth and has a clearer sound. Overall the sound quality of "The Blurred Crusade" is better than 'Of Skins and Hearts', wether this is due to better production I'm not sure, but it defiantly seems of a better quality to my ear. Everything sounds that much clearer and has a sharp edge and the vocals are easier to understand. The David Bowie influence is at a peak here with songs like "Field of Mars", which has a David Bowie flavour to it. The song structure is generally more complex on "The Blurred Crusade"; there is more good solid instrumental material here.

Putting all that aside "The Blurred Crusade" is simply a better in depth listen than its predecessor and I'm happy to say that it just continues to get better and better until the band's ultimate peak around 'Hologram of Baal.' But for now even T"he Blurred Crusade" is quite an impressive work, you must overlook some of the less.progressive moments of course you'd expect from a band at such an early stage in their career. I have to say that these embarrassing moments are very, very rare and not too bad, so really they are easy to overlook, and each song is able to redeem its self, thankfully. Whether it is a good guitar solo, a nice following vocal passage or whatever each song has at least one good moment.

One thing I've noticed with Steve Kilbey's style of writing lyrics that he tends to rhyme them very well then, he almost purposely breaks the pattern which brings a feel of frustration and wonderment at the same time. It's not so much on "The Blurred Crusade" but it does happen in later albums. Whether Steve does this purposely I don't know, but is does give an interesting twist to a song instead of following a set pattern of progression. While the vocals are relatively straightforward on "The Blurred Crusade" Steve Kilbey's lyrics gradually become more and more adventurous and luckily he is part of a band that is willing to explore new, abstract styles while still having a subtle element of simplicity thrown in. Despite my general praise, there are still a few unattractive features to "The Blurred Crusade."

1. Almost With You (3/5) 2. When You Were Mine (2.5/5) 3. Fields of Mars (3/5) 4. An Interlude (3.5/5) 5. Secret Corners (2.5) 6. Just for You (3/5) 7. A Fire Burns (3/5) 8. To Be in Your Eyes (3/5) 9. You Took (3/5) 10. Don't Look Back (3/5) Total = 29 divided by 10 (number of songs) = 2.9 = 3 stars Good, but non-essential

I'd really like to see more people listening to The Church as I personally think they are an exceptional band and some of their albums are simply breath taking, while most others are at around three stars. So what ever The Church album you get you're almost guaranteed to get something half-decent. I'd recommend this album to anyone interested, not half-bad. I highly recommend The Church's latest album, 'Uninvited, Like the Clouds.'

The Church's" Blurred Crusade" is a stand alone masterpiece - a perfect albumn that blends delectably enigmatic lyrics, that themselves work simply as poetry, with low key atmospheric guitars (acoustic and electric). The originality of the sound or final effect is omnipresent. Although all songs are outstanding, hilites include the ultra atmospheric "Field of Mars", the brief yet exquisitely beautiful "Secret Corners" and the poppy "Just for You". If i could only own 10 albums/CDs this would be one of them.

This album is a good continuation of their debut "Of Skins & Heart!" which fully embraced the new wave sounds.

The same freshness, same upbeat rhythms, fine vocal combinations, and a definite and positive impression prevails while listening to this work. Of course, if you are looking closely to find some prog influences here, you'd better pass your way, because there is none.

These guys from the Antipode were gifted and not too serious (like their nearby colleagues from "Split Enz" although maybe not as creative). It is a pleasure to listen to their tunes even if some are quite popish and simply structured ("An Interlude").

The early eighties were quite a nightmare for truly prog bands, so: why not enjoying some good music available with this sort of album? IMHHO, it just falls short from their great debut one; but maybe the repetition caused this feeling. The surprise is no longer there, but still: I am facing a good album.

If you are quite open-minded and willing to spend some time to listen to some musical difference: I can only recommend you to pay attention to this work. It is not essential but at least it is different (even if "Just For You" is quite average to say the least).

The band sounds again very much "Ultravox!" while playing "A Fire Burns": great beat and fine vocals. A truly early eighties piece of music. Fully in vein of some early "Simple Minds" stuff as well ("Life In A Day" - the album).

The great "Devo" aren't too far away during the superb instrumental intro of "You Took". An excellent rock song which develops more than usual (it also clocks at almost eight minutes). A fine song indeed.

This album brings some good souvenirs to my mind. My early twenties?Even if I won't be as generous as for their debut album, I am still rating this effort with three stars. A good album for sure.

This early peak for The Church sees their pioneering jangle pop style mature, offering a more seamless integration with the gothic, post-punk/new wave, and psychedelic sounds which also influenced them whilst still staking out a musical identity which was at the time distinctive - although many bands would explore this sort of territory in subsequent years, to my ears only the UK's intrepid Felt really compare, particularly when it comes to the wistfully melancholic atmosphere. The original wave of psychedelia didn't do melancholia that much (passing that off to the folk rock crowd for the most part), what with the sunny 1960s optimism that spawned it, but The Blurred Crusade is a fine example of psych-influenced jangle pop from an era much happier to explore being sad.