‘ Don’t let fear steal your brave heart / Don’t let doubt take your faith heart / It’s okay to cry, but don’t ever break heart.‘ Again the sheer genius of Jay Joyce is transcendent – the key backing elevating the track to something majestic, as are the almost psychedelic sounds near the end. This last is a grooving, rock-edged sway of a track, about living life despite hardship and pain. ‘ Light the arrow, pull the bow / Shoot that fire right through my soul / Hit my pride, fist up high / I wanna feel a rush, I wanna feel alive.’ The anger nearly bubbles over on this stunning and powerful track that is weighed down by the weight of his emotion, and it is almost the suppression of anger itself – allowing Church to articulate his vocal – that gives the track its power as he spits his way through the song.Ĭhurch has an incredible ability to evade cliche on the record, removing country stereotypes from the record, even tracks like ‘Never Break Heart’ skirt around cliche through the simple fact of their gritty, rock edge. More powerful still is the quiet anger that simmers on ‘Stick That In Your Country Song’ – a seething rock song that addresses the traditional idyllic image of country music, addressing crime, unemployment, war and more. ‘ People break people try / Things happen people cry / Someone leaves love dies / Someone changes their mind / Baby I get it I really do.’ Joyce’s instrumentation is stunning here, layering a soulful background vocal and letting the tenor of Church’s vocal sing as purely as we’ve seen before. ‘ My true north is anywhere I can leave it all behind / Let’s point this thing west into the chest of the still beating heart of the night.’ Church’s vocal here retains that touch of vulnerability that gives it real power and meaning, as is also the case on the stunning later track ‘People Break.’ It’s a sentimental track, without feeling cloying – a truthful song about heartbreak. ‘Heart Of the Night’ is a poignant track – that feels all the more meaningful, given the past year – about leaving town and living life to the fullest. ‘ We weren’t old enough to drink but we damn sure did it / Hat turned backward singin’ “Paradise City” / That look on your face was full of young desire.’ It will be a joyful celebratory track when live music returns and feels utterly free and liberated in its sound and instrumentation.Ĭhurch is often at his best at his most sombre and stripped back. It’s a story of young love and all its joys. ‘Heart on Fire’ that opens the record is a straight-up toe-tapping, grooving track, accentuated with a joyfully meaty instrumentation – keys, soaring guitar solos and backing vocals. Released on the 16th April, first up is the Heart of the project. Misunderstood. It’s one of the most thoughtful projects that Church has created to date, moving seamlessly from track to track with the poised tracklist – a task that in itself should not be underestimated, considering the number of tracks. The mammoth task of the creation of the record, in itself, has created a hugely complex and diverse project – one that covers the broad spectrum of Church’s artistry – from the grittier sounds featured on 2011’s Chief to the more soulful sounds on 2015’s Mr. Is this a double album? And if it’s a double album, how do we leave out these five or six songs?’ I am the hardest critic on making sure every song deserves to be on the record, and I beat this thing to death going ‘this can’t be that good.’ But, it was just a special, special time and a special, special project that I think will be among our best.” “I kept saying ‘God, this is going to be really hard. “The interesting thing about this process is that Jay kept asking me the last three or four days, ‘Are we done?’ and at that time I didn’t know what the project was,” notes Church. In this mammoth, 24-song collection, Church collaborated with an elite list of songwriters, creating the record in a secluded marathon writing and recording sessions, produced by Church’s longtime collaborator Jay Joyce, as well as his touring band and backing vocalist Joanna Cotten – as expected, the songwriting is elite. Now, he will release his new three-part project, Heart & Soul, this Friday 16th April that shows his desire to prioritise his fans, whilst also pushing the limits of her own artistry. Reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year and current GRAMMY nominee Eric Church has spent the past year releasing music with a relentless zeal.
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