Customer Reviews

Zero Church

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Evaluating these reader reviews is frustrating because so many sound like typically uncritical fan ravings or the carping of a sorehead who enjoys being negative. In either case, I rarely feel I have learned anything about whether or not I would like the album.

That said, I invite anyone who enjoys the Roches--or anyone who simply enjoys good music--to give this album a chance. Be prepared to fall in love.

When the Roches began issuing albums and performing concerts in the late 1970s, they featured superb harmony and a particuarly brainy sort of sexuality. They have always been too principled to serve up dummed-down, highly commercial albums crafted to not offend. You could describe their work with such adjectives as sassy, quirky, witty, goofy, lovely, empathetic and--again--sexy.

One word I would never have mentioned with respect to the Roches' earlier work is "spiritual." But of course, spirituality is exactly what Zero Church is all about. I'd like to think it is what many Americans are concerned with in these post 9/11 days. But while the new emphasis on spirituality comes off as being dull or self-congrulatory with many people, it sure doesn't with Maggie and Suzzy Roche. If you take a couple of smart women who are sassy, quirky, witty, goofy, lovely, empathetic, sexy AND spiritual, you end up with someone worth spending time with.

And that's where I am. This is not the way I usually relate to music, but I have been listening to Zero Church--and nothing else--for three days. Each time through, I like it a little better.

Beautiful prayers, superb production, and masterful songcraft combine to make one really great CD - Excellent!

This is a rare find in this day and age. Here we have an album that sounds beautiful and reads like poetry, i.e. what songs should be. Both the music and the lyrics are well deserving of the praise these artists have received from many listeners.

The messages behind the songs make this album uniuqe, especially in combination with the qualities above. The messages are spiritual without being pollyanna-ish, judgmental, or denominational. They are everyone who is open to art, humanity, and spirituality.

This CD is wonderfully diverse and is one of the finest done by the Roches. While deeply spiritual, it is not "religious". Rather, it reaches deeply into the heart and calls the spirit to respond. I have been playing it over & over again and feel I will never tire of hearing it.

I Love the Roches, i love thier sincerity, thier sillienness, thier exquisite musicianship and mind-blowing harmonies. But nothing prepared me for the raw beauty and almost intimidating honesty of this work. Zero Church confronts the existentential nature of faith, the why am i talking to a god i dont even know exists angle. And it accomplishes this with such sweet style and grace and directness that is often missing in secular religion. Never has any album in my recent memory caused me to examine my own place in the scheme of things in such an attitude of gratitude and awe. Thank you ! and AMEN!

As with any Roches music, the first thing that impresses me is the harmony. They could just be singing nonsense in harmony and I would listen to them, but their choice of material in this effort forces you to listen to the lyrics. I will probably print out the words to "Anyway" and post them on the office bulletin board.

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.