The Church-A Box Of Birds

This Australian band is one of my favorites. I have 6 CDs by them and 6 records. I did manage to see them in concert about 20 years ago. This is a CD of covers from 1999. This is the classic line-up of Steve Kilby, Marty Wilson-Piper, Peter Koppes and drummer Tim Powles. A really great selection of covers starting with “The Faith Healer” by Alex Harvey. “It’s All Too Much” a Beatles song written by George Harrison from The Yellow Submarine soundtrack is next. “The Porpoise Song” by Goffin/King was recorded by The Monkees. They also cover songs by Ultravox, Television. Iggy Pop, Mott The Hoople and Hawkwind. Most of the songs are pretty close to the originals but have The Church sound. One song, “Decadence” written by Kevin Ayers that I have never heard the original of sounds so much like a Church song I always think of it as theirs. The final song on the CD is “Cortez The Killer” which they really jam on. Not quite so much as Built To Spills 20 minute take on it but this clocks in at over 11 minutes. The booklet folds out to show 8 different covers for the CD sent in via the internet from people. Many bands have released covers albums but this has to be one of the best. Unfortunately not released in the vinyl format yet.

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