I pick up new music all the time but I don’t always get to writing about it in a very timely manner. Case in point: Chris Church. I ran across a few tracks of his posted to a power pop Facebook group and thought ‘fantastic’! Downloaded a few songs and then … nothing.  Well now I’m attending to Chris Church and you should too. Fans of Matthew Sweet, Tommy Keene but also Neil Finn are going to love what Chris is doing. A great place to start would be 2004’s Let the Echo Decide, a real poprock treat. Right out of the gate “You Better Move Now Baby” kicks off with a real Split Enz bassline before building a nice melodic project, element by element, from creative guitar lines to the interesting vocal interplay. For something a bit different, there’s the rollicking “Scrutiny on the Bounty” or the obvious single “Julie, I Probably Shouldn’t” with its delightfully unexpected slide and ringing guitars. Church’s other big release is 2017’s Limitations of the Source Tape – also chock full of memorable tracks like the Marshall Crenshaw-ish “Bell the Cat” or the melodically discordant “Perfecto.”

You Better Move On Now BabyBell the Cat

You can also explore his harder-to-find releases (e.g. early recordings or releases lost in the shuffle of record label failures) on Bandcamp. Personally I love “Right Awhile” from 2001’s Your Own Chosen Speed or the great lost hit single from 2009’s The Heartbreaks You Embrace, “Forever Only Lasts a Little While.” And there’s a host of one-off releases like the hooky “Charleston Girl” and the wonderful “Lost is Lost” with its addictive guitar lines. You can also find some great Big Star and Todd Rundgren covers there!

Lost is Lost

Discovering Chris Church will be a revelation. Really. Check out his stuff on Bandcamp, iTunes and his Facebook page.