Zero Church

Suzzy Roche, Maggie Roche | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 22, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Red House
• ASIN: B00005TPF2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,674 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #77 in Music > Indie Music > Folk > Contemporary Folk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Zero Church: First Great Release of 2002, January 31, 2002

By 

Gavin B. (St. Louis MO) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Zero Church (Audio CD)

It's hard to beleive that it has been 23 years since the Roche sisters released their debut album and created a buzz both in folk and alternative music circles. Over the past ten years, we have only gotten a few precious morsels from the Roches: Suzzy released a wonderful solo album in 2000; and in 1995 the Roches released their last album with all 3 sisters, the stunning but idosyncratic "Can We Go Home Now." It is befuddling that the Roches have failed to reach a broader audience, beyond the handful of listeners who adore them. The Roches are simply too clever, too eccentric, too bohemian, and too damn good to reach the MTV generation who need whistles, bells, nose piercings and go-go girls to maintain their attention span. I am hoping that the message of "Zero Church" by sisters Suzzy and Maggie Roche, will reach the ears of the unordained.

For Roche fans: even without Terre (where is she??), there are the familiar tightly arranged and etheral harmonies that we have loved throughout the years. The big change is the skewed whimsy of the Roches is gone. This album was scheduled for release on 9/11/01, the dark day of the World Trade Tower disaster, and the Roche sisters elected to shelve it until last week (01/22/02). The result is the addition of "New York City" a heartfelt and powerful elegy to the people of the Big Apple. The remaining songs are prayers put to music by the sisters. The crisp minimalist production values and the addition of guest artists like Sweet Honey in the Rock's Ysaye Barnwell, the Institute of Arts and Civic Dialogue's Dupree and the multi-talented Ruben Martinez, more than fill the gaps left by Terre Roche's absence from this project. The result is the first magnificent CD release of 2002, and the most cohesive offering ever from the Roches.

The album was conceived and rehearsed at the reknowned activist church at Zero Church St. in Cambridge Massachusett; hence the title "Zero Church." The non-dogmatic and pluralistic content of the title can also be a double edged sword of wordplay. "Zero Church" is that time in the future, when we won't judge folks by their religious denomination, but by their heroic actions, inspiring deeds, and like the Roches, by their beautiful music, which gives us hope.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hypnotic, February 1, 2002

By A Customer

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This review is from: Zero Church (Audio CD)

Maggie and Suzzy Roche harmonize, sometimes with others, on a collection of prayers, many which they set to music. The effect is moving and soothing and aurally gorgeous. This is the most satisfying work by any of the Roches singularly or collectively since the great "A Dove". The sisters have always had a strain of existential angst and yearning, sometimes served straight up (The Beautiful Love of God, In the World) sometimes ironically and comically (Another World, Largest Elizabeth in the World). Being prayers, this collection rests in the straight up camp. Roche sisters have always been able to avoid the danger of their too beautiful voices becoming precious by mixing it up with effective dissonances or complex voicings of their harmonies and this is no exception. "Jeremiah" is simple and sweet, "Anyway" bright and catchy. Such tunes here are always countered by a dark and doleful sound likethat on "Each of Us Has A Name." It requires genius to successfully mix up a white girl sound like the Roches' with the earthy black gospel singing of DuPree and Ysaye Barnwell and not be left feeling that all the singing should have been left to the latter. On tunes like "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray" you hear how the Roche girls let you hear everybody pray, and in their own way, and make music worthy of repeated listening.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and a Mite Genteel, May 16, 2002

By 

WrtnWrd "Hankman" (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Zero Church (Audio CD)

Suzzy & Maggie Roche's Zero Church, a by-product of a Harvard seminar, is a collection of cross-cultural prayers set to music. The music, as would be expected, is contemplative folk scored for the purity of the Roche voices. There's a plea for the fallen of "New York City". (Originally to be released on September 11, Zero Church was pulled so Suzzy Roche could respond to the plane attacks in song). A Vietnam veteran seeks redemption in "A Prayer". The last night of Matthew Shephard's life is imagined as a series of what "Sounds" he might have heard as he waited for death. These are the most plaintive, and moving, of the eighteen tracks, though different listeners will respond with varying degrees of intensity depending on a multitude of factors: religious upbringing, ethnic background, historical interest. The CD, while gracious and always interesting, is a mite soporific to my tastes. It's so genteel, in fact, that when a Hebrew chant is introduced in "Aveenu Malcainu", it's as bracing and sneaky as guitar solo.