Circle Slide

The Choir are a pretty consistently reliable source of quality moody alternative rock with a philosophical slant. This one is no exception, but it's considerably "darker" than their last outing WIDE EYED WONDER, which found lyricist Steve Hindalong flush with the joy of new fatherhood. The bloom may be off the rose a bit here as Hindalong struggles to raise his daughter (See "If I Had a Yard"). It also seems like he's been doing even more soul searching than usual and considers himself "weighed and found wanting" spiritually. (See "Merciful Eyes" and "Restore my Soul")

HIGHLIGHTS:

Opening the disk with a 7 minute long track is a BIG gamble and it does nothing so much as affirm that the band is about making their statement first and worrying about getting "a hit" last. "Circle Slide" is a poetic expression of eternal life with vocalist Derry Daugherty inviting us to "imagine one perfect circle above the stratosphere/Where lovers hide away and children cheer". Perhaps its best line examines the laissez faire attitude Christians take toward Jesus: "Around my neck against my heart/I wear a wooden cross/And sometimes I remember what freedom cost". Starving musician Hindalong dreams of a white picket fence suburban life in "If I Had a Yard". He hopes to "Drink the acid rain/til we go insane". (It's charmingly punctuated by a recorded giggle from his daughter Emily.) "Merciful Eyes" examine the contradictions found in the lives of Christians who seek to emulate Jesus but continually break His commands. ("If I reach for the blue with my face in the sand/Could a justified slave call himself a free man?") "About Love" is the Choir's notion of a lovey-dovey pop song, but even then they throw in some left turns. ("There's something dark about destiny/There's something blue about you with me/There's something wonderful about love") The tune reached #25 on Christian radio. "Restore my Soul" may be the most morose tune Hindalong's ever penned...he's grasping his way back to God but it's a hard crawl. ("I cry to you with two eardrums blistered/From laughing with preachers of night.....A day away from sanctified/A breath away from whole/Restore my soul")

LOWS:

"Sentimental Song" is a decent ditty but it's pretty lightweight for this band. It's not "bad" but it sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the melancholy here.

BOTTOM LINE:

This is another stellar outing from the Choir though not my particular favourite. It's very much a mood record, so it probably won't spend as much time in your player as their others, but you'll definitely need to own it. Recommended.

It is hard to imagine how this CD and this band has been so over loooked for so long. Without a doubt, thay have some of the most outstanding lyrical and musical combinations a music fan will ever come across. "Circle Slide" was recorded in 1990 and was unique then as it is today. The songs are all written by Steve Hindalong and the music by Derri Daugherty. The CD has a feeling of an early ELO or maybe a bit like Pink Floyd from early days. But the music writing of Daugherty is still something of its on. I have listened to many bands live and on CD and find "circle slide" to be really a sound unto themselves.

To be more specific, the music could be called modern or alternative rock. I prefer to think of is as post-modern music. There is certally more "pop" songs such as "restore my soul" to the medlodically balanced "about love" with its lyrics set in contridictions and seeing the bad in the good while keeping a happy tone.

These are balanced out with the guitar and riffng and off beat drum mix of "if I had a yard" and the mornful blues harmonica and the deep drums of "blue skies". The CD starts out with a 7:23 minute diatrybe into the the loss and hope of living on the "circle slide" (earth) with slow hypnotic guitar and bass lines filling the time with a relaxing mood. It is a good way to start a CD that would be a fit in your collection and on your hip and car.

Circle Slide is in the best traditions of The Choir: atmospheric, melodic, strange, happy, sad and ambient. The chorused guitars are there lifting the sound as usual.

I first saw The Choir at the Greenbelt Festival in Northamptonshire in 1985. I remember it so well. I was sitting around at our camp area and this wall of heavenly sound seemed to decend from above. It was coming from the main stage so I had to go and check it out. I also went to the "Village" and bought their Diamonds and Rain LP straight afterwards. I saw them a few years later and the effect was the same.

Definately in my all-time favourite CCM list.