Parallel Universe
The Church have long forsaken the desire to make populist music and seem to exist to please themselves. Doubtless, the indulgentParallel Universewon't win the band many new friends in the fair-weather world of mainstream rock & roll. No matter. Anyone open-minded enough to venture past the dauntingly awkward song titles will perceive this sprawling prog-inclined double-album as either a brave case of artistic leg-stretching or justPorcupine Treewith bells on. Essentially,Parallel Universeis a remix of the Church's latest studio offering,After Everything Now This. One disc is dedicated to reconstructing that album's material within some kind of gothic ambient framework (replete with fat synth bass, squealing, and metallic vocals), and a second disc offers similar reconstructions of songs originally considered surplus. Such projects often fail by straying too far from traditional song structures.Parallel Universe, however, maintains enough ofAfter Everything's downer vibe and slovenly melody to prove the exception to the rule.--Kevin Maidment