The Churchills

The Odds Of Winning – (Near Records)

A new Churchills CD often means a review about beautiful melodies, catchy songs, hooky guitars,…you know, the stuff that sort of flows out when you have the “classic” power pop sound.  Well, there’s quite a bit more here in The Odds Of Winning, The Churchills grandest musical statement yet.

By-the-book power pop often runs the risk of becoming disposable.  When there’s a glut of bands out there saying, “us, too” it gets a little hard to make some distinctions and you end up saying, “screw it, I’m just throwing on some Plimsouls” or something.  Well, The Churchills have steered pretty clear of that danger throughout their career.  In fact, when these pages were called Shake It Up in what seems like many moons ago, their debut Magnifique 400 and You Are Here both made out “tops of the year” lists and we even suffered through an episode of Spin City just to see their band-on-the-street appearance (at the end, no less!).  Yeah, they get your attention.

Now comes The Odds Of Winning.  Apparently, these “odds” are pretty slim.  The Churchills got “the blues”.

Of course I don’t mean the 12-bar variety.  Rather, The Odds Of Winning comes off as intensely personal and emotionally raw.  From there, The Churchills lay a foundation that makes The Odds Of Winning work so well– the fact that melancholy doesn’t have to consist solely of an acoustic guitar and a tape recorder or be played at a snail’s pace.  In fact, the full arrangements here add to the solemn themes here.  We can hear screaming guitars, pounding drums, and studio effects all over this thing and it makes it all the more powerful that there’s a heartbroken loner amidst the aural chaos.

The Churchills are a heavier band than most of their pop contemporaries (by far in most cases) and they come charging out of the gate with their “Not So Goodbye”, showing that newer members Scott Haskitt (guitars) and Jed Higgerson (drums) are a perfect fit for original members Ron Haney (guitars, keys, and vocals) and Bart Schoudel (bass, vocals).  Right away, in sharp contrast, “Sometimes Your Best Isn’t Good Enough” challenges the band further in keeping a relentless momentum maintained from start to finish.  As if to give us a chance to catch our breath, “I’m A Sucker For A Girl In Uniform” mines more retro territory but not without giving us a start with the line, “I try to turn away but I’m always so excited, sexy Joan Of Arc before she was ignited”.  Maybe it’s my Catholic upbringing but hey, what balls!

Calling The Churchills sensitive might be an understatement when you consider song titles like “It Only Hurts When I Breathe” but one thing they’re obviously sensitive to is the fact that their listeners might want more than just a “confession” and they can do that without diminishment.  Again, their musical ability and, perhaps more importantly, their knowing their way around a studio keeps The Odds Of Winning relentless in its pace. “They’re Never Gonna Find Me”’s punk-like pace, the big rock (uh, you know, RAWK) sound of “Tailspin”, and the changes on the title track (which sounds like a few different songs crammed together) all reveal this agenda.

What separates The Odds Of Winning from earlier Churchills releases is the thematic and musical unity throughout (which isn’t to say that it’ll make me forget Magnifique 400’s lower-fi charm necessarily – “apples and oranges” and all that).  Whatever lies at the root of fuelling these odes to desperation will pass no doubt, but The Churchills seized on a moment in time here – and I, for one, am grateful that it’s preserved.

8.0