Customer Reviews

The Blurred Crusade

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a huge Church fan, and have all their studio albums of original material (13 at latest count). "The Blurred Crusade," has always been one of my favorites. The songs are consistently high quality, and begin to define the signature sound of the band, which one reviewer astutely describes as "space-jangle-psychedelia style." This phrase is as good as any to describe the unique swirling sound of this guitar driven, extremely underrated band.

One of my favorite songs on the album is "Almost With You," with its fine acoustic guitar solo. I can't figure out why this listener-friendly song never received radio play. Another favorite is "Interlude" with its curious lyrics, and several changes of pace. The two short songs, "Secret Corners" and "Don't Look Back" are poignant, as is the album's love song "To Be In Your Eyes." The eight minute "You Took," reminds me of "Is This Where You Live" from the band's previous (debut) album "Of Skins and Heart."

What prevents me from giving this excellent album five stars is, what I believe to be, the absence of a truly knock-out song. Later, the band would cut such masterpieces as "Shadow Cabinet," "Myrrh," "Reptile," "Anesthesia," and several others that I would put in this category. However, all-in-all, "The Blurred Crusade" is one of the best of The Church's body of work, and displays Kilbey, Koppes and Wilson-Piper in top form.

"The Blurred Crusade" is so full of should-have-been radio hits that I wonder how it took the U.S. so long to find this band. A success in Australia, it wasn't until "Under the Milky Way" on their Starfish album did the Church get any mainstream radio airplay in the States. It's a shame, because as wonderful as Starfish is (my favorite album of all time), "The Blurred Crusade" had many more radio-friendly songs, most noteably "Almost With You," and "When You Were Mine." I love the lyrics of "To Be In Your Eyes," and the driving beat and guitar riffs in "You Took" are fabulous.

My favourite song of all time "Almost With You" starts off this album. The mystical lyrics combined with those swirling and jangling guitars mixed with the driving beat and solid low end. This IMO is the definitive song of "how to make music". Even down to the tones of the instruments used and the mixing. All superb.
Perhaps I would only rate the album overall a 4.5. But since I have to use integers (and contains my all-time favourite composition)I will round up.
"When you were mine" is a superb droning rock song that beautifully counters the timid "Secret Corners", a gentle and wistful tune saturated with imagery of loneliness.
"You Took" is fundamentally an instrumental that shows how a simple piece can be transformed into a masterpiece with the appropriate use of dynamics and "Fields of Mars" draws the listener into a barren landscape that threatens to engulf the senses forever.
This album is both a classic and a foreshadow of great things to come. A definite "must have" for any fan of _The Church_.

I have quite a few Church albums -- Of Skins And Heart, Remote Luxury, Heyday, Starfish, Gold Afternoon Fix -- and I still think this one is the best, most consistently good work they have ever done.

I just bought the Heyday CD a few weeks ago, after going years with only the "Columbus" 45 RPM single, and after reading all of the rave reviews from most critics that describe Heyday as the apex of the Church's output (along with Starfish), I must disagree. I was pretty disappointed in Heyday. In fact, at least two songs on it are completely unlistenable to me.

Back to The Blurred Crusade. I am happy to report that there are NO unlistenable tracks on this one! They are all gems, gorgeously done in the Church's signature space-jangle-psychedelia style. The melodies are sharper, the songs more focused and less likely to meander or go on for too long (a fault of many of their later works), and there are plenty of "should-have-been-hits" on the album.

Almost With You and Just For You are two examples. I hum Just For You for hours after hearing it. Don't Look Back is a great, short closing track also. This was essentially the beginning of the familiar chiming, delayed-chorus-effect guitar sound that characterized most of the later works. After the much more direct, poppy sound of Of Skins And Heart, the Blurred Crusade set the direction for the future. If only all of their future albums sounded as great as this one.

One of the early (1982), underrated releases by the Church that sounds better with each listen. This recording tends to get overlooked or lost in the Church's 20 year+ catalog of superior work, and that is a mistake. Every song is a gem. It includes the perfect pop of "Almost With You", the Pink Floyd-y vibe of "Field of Mars", the majestic "You Took" and "A Fire Burns". No dogs allowed on this album. For those fans whose Church history begins and ends with "Under the Milky Way" from the million-selling "Starfish" album, don't miss this earlier, splendid set of tunes from Steve Kilbey and Co. (by the way, that door-knock at the beginning of "Just For You" STILL fools me almost twenty years later...). This is great, if not somewhat unknown, pop music and is highly recommended by this listener.

This has remained a constant favourite of mine since it was first released back in '82. Even after 18 years, I still keep picking up things I'd not noticed before. It will always make it into my Desert Island Disc list.

The Church's finest moment, IMHO. All of their other albums have definite high & low points, but for me, there's not a duff track on this from start to finish.

Do your ears a favour & BUY IT!

Fantastic. The Church have had time to let time test their value. No question that they retain their invaluable status. This album is proof positive that they had a great lead singer (Kilbey), great production (Gilbey), great guitar (Willson/Koppes), and great ambiance. "Just for you" is the killer track on this album: fantastic acoustic lead in that builds into a full rock head of sound, BRILLIANT. I have loved this track for 20+ years.

This is a solid CD start to finish. I bought it 15 years ago and it's now one of my 20 favorite CD's. Terrific mix of music and easily the best Church CD that I own.

You must own this album if only for "Almost with You", but the whole album is of the quality you'd expect from The Church. A bit more acoustic than the rest of their early albums but doesn't lack in the melodic charm they are adept at. "A Fire Burns" is a great rocker, too.

This is probably the best Church album. I remember saving and saving to buy the import vinyl version of this - I don't believe that it was issued domestically until Arista tried to cash in on "Starfish" by re-releasing the first 5 Church albums in 1988. Lovely, lovely.