Speckled Bird

Description

Speckled Bird is a studio album by the American alternative rock band The Choir, released on R.E.X. Records in 1994. The album is largely remixed and reworked versions of songs featured on their independently released 1993-EP Kissers and Killers, along with five new tunes, and showed the band’s increasing love for the noise pop genre.

It’s been four years since the band’s last full-length album, Circle Slide, so the group took its limited-edition ’93 release, Kissers and Killers, dropped one song, spruced up the remaining seven and added five new tunes to turn a good EP into a great album. What makes the band’s sound so intriguing is that it’s built on four disparate styles of playing. Steve Hindalong switches rapidly from convential patterns and rhythms to jazzy, off-beat licks; Derri Daugherty will ease from a verse of delicate, fingerpicked guitar fills to an eight-bar solo of feedback and sax/lyricon player Dan Michaels’ approach is to layer free jazz solos over the whole deal! Bassman Tim Chandler is often the melodic anchor of the group; you’ll hear more that echoes Daugherty’s vocals in Chandler’s bass lines than in any other part of the arrangement. Hindalong’s lyrics are also as much a Choir hallmark as the music. Steve is prone to using nature-based metaphores (“Creatures climb the window pane/ To avoid the coming rain/ Is it hard to be so sane/ When love is crazy”), and he also writes many lyrics about his marriage (“She grips my heart/ Anytime she smiles/ Anytime she cries/ She mingles madness with goodness/ When we’re alone”). When his songs address the faith more directly, the results are equally as poetic (“Man of Sorrows hanging/ Iscariot swinging/ A curious polarity”). The cutting-edge music and splendid lyrics makes Speckled Bird as good as anything The Choir has done. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, August 1994]

This semi-new release features seven tracks from The Choir’s independent ‘Kissers And Killers‘ demo, plus five new songs recorded in the Nashville branch of their Neverland Studios. The overall sound is more aggressive than earlier efforts such as ‘Circle Slide‘ and ‘Wide-Eyed Wonder‘. Derri’s prominent tremelo fuzzy guitar effects provide the underlying thread throughout the album, which often takes precedence over his vocals. Lyricist Steve Hindalong commented, “The songs on ‘Speckled Bird’ are the same songs except «Wilderness», which is sort of the odd one. But the rest of them are…twisted love songs… 11 songs that really are cohesive.” The opening title track is a cynical tale of love and death drawing on similarities between the two. «Weather Girl» and «Yellow Skies» from ‘Kissers And Killers’ were remixed in their new studio. The former pushes the heavy distortion guitar further back in the mix, resulting in clearer vocals. «Yellow Skies» is more grating to the ear and replaces the original guitar breaks with vocal interludes. «Like A Cloud» is a favourite with its trippy, ethereal washes of keyboard, masterful orchestration and tremelo guitar. The ‘plugged’ version of «Wilderness» (as opposed to the unplugged one on the ‘Brow Beat‘ compilation) is faster, a lot less mellow and, in my opinion, not as effective. Three years is a long time to wait for a label-funded release for fans of these highly rated musicians who are frequently described as the “premier Christian alternative band.” Be sure to get a copy. [Liz Liew, Cross Rhythms, December 1994]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/speckled-bird/97404582)

CD tracklist:

01. Speckled Bird – 3:46
02. Yellow Skies – 3:49
03. Like A Cloud – 2:06
04. Gripped – 4:20
05. Weather Girl – 6:19
06. Wilderness – 4:03
07. Never More Time – 3:27
08. Spring – 3:55
09. Grace – 3:06
10. Amazing – 3:40
11. Love Your Mind – 5:24
12. Kissers And Killers – 2:55

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by R.E.X. Records.

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