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Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Eric Church: Evangeline vs the Machine review – Student of the heart's crookedness plays it straight
Evangeline vs the Machine Artist : Eric Church Label : EMI Nashville Country music is often regarded as a genre that moves in the slow lane, but Eric Church has never been one for obeying the speed limit. Just last year the North Carolina-born artist created a furore at Stagecoach – country music's Coachella – when he skimped on his best-loved hits in favour of acoustic versions of rap songs by 2Pac and Snoop Dogg. You haven't lived until you've heard a 47-year-old Nashville veteran and 10-time Grammy nominee negotiate Snoop's Gin & Juice ('Everything is fine when you listenin' to the D-O-G'). Such was Church's logic, at any rate, though his fans did not agree. Many left early, wondering if they had witnessed an act of self-sabotage or a bizarre stab at performance art. Church would later clarify that he 'wanted to challenge himself' and 'do something really weird' – a mission he accomplished. Twelve months later he's still taking risks, with a new album that has the discombobulating cyberpunk title of Evangeline vs the Machine and arrives with gleaming sci-fi artwork. Those are the limits of its excesses, however: the project clocks in at a trim eight tracks and a run time of just 36 minutes. Yet, for all its economy, it raises a multitude of imponderables. Who is Evangeline, for instance, and what is the Machine? Church doesn't answer these questions to any meaningful degree over the course of an LP that belies its futuristic framing and is free of science-fiction trappings. READ MORE Instead of spooking his audience all over again, it showcases Church's expressive baritone and flair for beautifully arranged songs that revisit classic country themes such as heartache and the struggles of doing right in a cruel world. No babies are chucked out with the bathwater: Tupac Shakur fans will go home empty-handed. The record's theme is the relentless march of the years, as spelled out on the rumbling opening track, Hands of Time, which begins with a church organ and then leads into a dusky riff. 'Detroit built brakes so that they could make a Chevy slow down/ And a just-right midnight sorry might turn goodbye around,' Church croons, conjuring the United States' faded auto industry as a metaphor for the decline we all experience in our lives. We've all got our own private Detroits, he suggests. It's a bleak beginning to a collection that shifts deeper into melancholy on I Bleed on Paper, where steel pedal combines with meditative lyrics. 'May never be what you call a rock star – be cool if I don't get there,' the arena headliner with an estimated net worth of $40 million declaims. But lightning flickers amid the gloom. Storm in Their Blood is a gorgeous ballad on which, framed by sobbing strings, he conjures with the iconography of the American West ('Apache war-horse paint') and interrogates his short temper: 'most men seek love and peace – some are born with a storm in their blood.' That storm is tempered with anxiety on Johnny, his soulful take on The Devil Went Down to Georgia, the 1979 track by Charlie Daniels Band. The original spins a hokey tale of the devil trying to win a young man's soul by besting him in a fiddle-playing contest. Church repurposes it as a protest against gun violence and the trauma he felt, as the father of two young boys, after a 2023 school shooting in Nashville in which three nine-year-olds and three adults were killed. It's the searing high point of a record largely content to stay within the parameters of mainstream country music. Few sheep are frightened across a solid but never innovative LP. It will certainly appeal to Ireland's huge country-music fan base, who could do with an early summer treat to put them in the mood for Zach Bryan's shows at Phoenix Park in June. Those concerts will surely be spectacular. And if Evangeline vs the Machine doesn't have the same epic punch as the prospect of a vigil to Phoenix Park in praise of country music, it is nonetheless an agreeable addition to Church's repertoire. It will, in particular, come as a relief to fans who felt his future would be nothing but 2Pac covers and Snoop Dogg tributes. A singer with a talent for songs about the crookedness of the human heart is playing it straight.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Eric Church to release his latest album, 'Evangeline vs The Machine, in May
A perpetual desire to perfect the art of country music is at the core of Eric Church's latest album "Evangeline vs The Machine," out May 2, 2025, via EMI Nashville. His desire to, as a press statement notes, "champion the power of cohesive storytelling" has driven him to take his latest album as "a snapshot in time that lasts for all time." 'I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art — I think it's important. I've always let creativity be the muse. It's been a compass for me. The people that I look up to in my career and the kind of musicians I gravitate to never did what I thought they were going to do next – and I love them for it. I never want our fans to get an album and go, 'Oh, that's like (his 2011 breakout album) 'Chief' or that's like this.'" "Painstakingly, I lose sleep at night to try to make sure that whatever we do creatively, they go, 'Wow, that's not what I thought.' I think that's my job as an artist," adds the former Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year award winner. The album's trio of announced songs highlights Church's desire to directly engage with how deeply impacted he is by the changing nature of our collective emotional state during evolving times. The lead single 'Hands Of Time reflects how Church notes that "as I get older, I'm looking for things that make me feel not as old. I can honestly say that when I hear music or see something from my past, I feel like I did then; I relate to what it was then. I really believe that a good way to handle that is with music." 'Darkest Hour,' released in Sept. 2024 to support relief efforts following the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, with all of Church's publishing royalties donated to provide ongoing funds in support of his home state of North Carolina. 'That song had the chance to change things — it already has. The greatest concert I've ever played was the Concert for Carolina — that's the greatest thing I've been involved with. This song played a big part of that night and is a rallying cry for the people there that still need a lot of help. As a person who writes and performs a song, seeing it truly impact people's lives is the greatest thing you can hope to accomplish," Church adds. He also pushes his artistry via the recently only live-previewed "Johnny," which is not just a reinterpretation of The Charlie Daniels Band's 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia.' It's also inspired by his thoughts about the Covenant School tragedy. 'About a year ago, we had a shooting here in Nashville at the Covenant School,' he explained when introducing the song during CRS. 'Where my kids go to school, my two boys, is about a mile from that school. I will tell you something, the hardest thing I've ever done in my life — parent or otherwise — is dropping them off at that school the day after the shooting and watching them walk inside." "I sat in the parking lot for a long time, and as fate would have it, as I was pulling out, Charlie Daniels was playing, 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia.' I remember thinking, man, we could use Johnny right now, because the Devil's not in Georgia, he's everywhere. I went home and wrote 'Johnny'.' Hands Of Time (written by Eric Church, Scooter Carusoe) Bleed On Paper (written by Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell) Johnny (written by Eric Church, Luke Laird, Brett Warren) Storm In Their Blood (written by Eric Church) Darkest Hour (written by Eric Church) Evangeline (written by Eric Church, Luke Laird, Barry Dean) Rocket's White Lincoln (written by Eric Church) Clap Hands (written by Tom Waits) Fans can also pre-order an Amazon Music exclusive 'Evangeline vs. The Machine' vinyl in translucent light blue, available on or directly in the Amazon Music app, with fast and free shipping for Prime members via This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's Eric Church to release 'Evangeline vs The Machine' album
