Reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year, Eric Church will release his highly anticipated new three-part project – Heart & Soul – the first part of which will be released on Friday 16th April. Here, we review the mammoth project and give our takeaway thoughts.
Reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year and current GRAMMY nominee Eric Church has spent the past year releasing music with a relentless zeal. Now, he will release his new three-part project, Heart & Soul, this Friday 16th April that shows his desire to prioritise his fans, whilst also pushing the limits of her own artistry. In this mammoth, 24-song collection, Church collaborated with an elite list of songwriters, creating the record in a secluded marathon writing and recording sessions, produced by Church’s longtime collaborator Jay Joyce, as well as his touring band and backing vocalist Joanna Cotten – as expected, the songwriting is elite.
“The interesting thing about this process is that Jay kept asking me the last three or four days, ‘Are we done?’ and at that time I didn’t know what the project was,” notes Church. “I kept saying ‘God, this is going to be really hard. There’s a lot here. Is this a double album? And if it’s a double album, how do we leave out these five or six songs?’ I am the hardest critic on making sure every song deserves to be on the record, and I beat this thing to death going ‘this can’t be that good.’ But, it was just a special, special time and a special, special project that I think will be among our best.”
The mammoth task of the creation of the record, in itself, has created a hugely complex and diverse project – one that covers the broad spectrum of Church’s artistry – from the grittier sounds featured on 2011’s Chief to the more soulful sounds on 2015’s Mr. Misunderstood. It’s one of the most thoughtful projects that Church has created to date, moving seamlessly from track to track with the poised tracklist – a task that in itself should not be underestimated, considering the number of tracks.
Released on the 16th April, first up is the Heart of the project. ‘Heart on Fire’ that opens the record is a straight-up toe-tapping, grooving track, accentuated with a joyfully meaty instrumentation – keys, soaring guitar solos and backing vocals. It’s a story of young love and all its joys. ‘We weren’t old enough to drink but we damn sure did it / Hat turned backward singin’ “Paradise City” / That look on your face was full of young desire.’ It will be a joyful celebratory track when live music returns and feels utterly free and liberated in its sound and instrumentation.
Church is often at his best at his most sombre and stripped back. ‘Heart Of the Night’ is a poignant track – that feels all the more meaningful, given the past year – about leaving town and living life to the fullest. ‘My true north is anywhere I can leave it all behind / Let’s point this thing west into the chest of the still beating heart of the night.’ Church’s vocal here retains that touch of vulnerability that gives it real power and meaning, as is also the case on the stunning later track ‘People Break.’ It’s a sentimental track, without feeling cloying – a truthful song about heartbreak. ‘People break people try / Things happen people cry / Someone leaves love dies / Someone changes their mind / Baby I get it I really do.’ Joyce’s instrumentation is stunning here, layering a soulful background vocal and letting the tenor of Church’s vocal sing as purely as we’ve seen before.
More powerful still is the quiet anger that simmers on ‘Stick That In Your Country Song’ – a seething rock song that addresses the traditional idyllic image of country music, addressing crime, unemployment, war and more. ‘Light the arrow, pull the bow / Shoot that fire right through my soul / Hit my pride, fist up high / I wanna feel a rush, I wanna feel alive.’ The anger nearly bubbles over on this stunning and powerful track that is weighed down by the weight of his emotion, and it is almost the suppression of anger itself – allowing Church to articulate his vocal – that gives the track its power as he spits his way through the song.
Church has an incredible ability to evade cliche on the record, removing country stereotypes from the record, even tracks like ‘Never Break Heart’ skirt around cliche through the simple fact of their gritty, rock edge. This last is a grooving, rock-edged sway of a track, about living life despite hardship and pain. ‘Don’t let fear steal your brave heart / Don’t let doubt take your faith heart / It’s okay to cry, but don’t ever break heart.‘ Again the sheer genius of Jay Joyce is transcendent – the key backing elevating the track to something majestic, as are the almost psychedelic sounds near the end. Elsewhere, ‘Russian Roulette’ also retains the nostalgic feel of ‘Springsteen’ – a track about memories coming through the radio, playing with his emotions, whilst destroying the cliche notions of a country ‘driving song’. ‘I need a melody without a memory / Take me where I’ve never been.’ So too, the ‘honky tonk’ drinking tracks that come much later in the record are much more heartfelt and unique than this title allows. ‘Crazyland’ is a song about supporting your neighbour, and ‘Bunch of Nothing’ is a song of support, even with its more ‘honky tonk’ sounding edge.
Heart ends on the optimistic note provided by ‘Love Shine Down,’ rounding out Church’s Heart, about opening your heart to another, and opening up to love. ‘It’s cold and it’s dark in this sinner’s heart / Lady let your love shine down.’ It’s a beautifully sentimental note to round out the record – a layered, meaty and joyful note to end the record.
The middle portion of this project is an EP that will only be available to the Church choir – & – available exclusively to those fans and only as a vinyl record on the 20th April. It’s an uplifting note between the two records – brimming with gratitude to his fans throughout. Opening this part of the record, ‘Through My Ray-Bans’ sings of a place of joy and support, almost a wish for a life post-pandemic where ‘Everybody’s got their arms around everybody else’s shoulders / Guarding against the world outside like an army of Friday night soldiers’ – a song of gratitude to his fans who’ve turned up to his shows. Next, he turns his attention to those ‘Doing Life With Me,’ ‘giving thanks / For the ships I never sank / Every big every little in the everyday things / The notes and the words and the songs I sing / To the ones doing life with me.’ The range of Church’s vocal is showcased here with aplomb, a searing and sentimentally grateful track.
‘Do Side’ grooves with an easy funk that comes as a surprise, a grooving track that feels unexpected from Church, with thickly layered vocals. It’s a surprising sonic variation but it somehow works, owing to the power of Joyce who manages to make the transition seamless, and Church clearly is enjoying himself experimenting with the parameters of his sound. Church retracts back to his usual more roots-y sound on ‘Kiss Her Goodbye’ that sings of regrets in the last goodbye. It’s a bittersweet track, ‘Kiss her just for nothing / Just to let her know she was on my mind / My lips can’t seem to drink up enough neon / To kiss her goodbye.’ It’s a sweet ballad, with an ending portion that will take your breath away, rounded out by following track ‘Mad Man’ that deals again with regrets, about a man looking back on his life and the girl who ‘told him goodbye.’ & is rounded out with ‘Lone Wolf’ – a track that feels like a song of thanks to the country fans that saved him from being the ‘lone wolf’ he used to be. ‘This lone wolf ain’t lonely anymore / ‘Cause you weren’t afraid to reach out and save a lone wolf at your door.’ It’s a soulful, meaningful and plucky ballad to round out this part of the project.
On Soul, Church really lets rip the breadth of his sonic landscape, from the swaggering and groovy opener ‘Rock & Roll Found Me’ to the blues-y ‘Where I Wanna Be.’ It feels like Church is really living and grooving to his full potential, and its resplendent.
‘Rock & Roll Found Me’ is the grooviest song we’ve heard from Church, with an almost sixties-tinge to the sound – nostalgic for the golden days of the sixties – as Church looks back to his own sonic roots on the track. ‘I was a laid-back caddy, rolling cool through the alley, heading for disaster / When a black man’s guitar stopped me at the edge / And sang Billy Jo McAlister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.’ Somehow the sound feels like an extension of what has come before, rather than a sonic departure, oozing with a glorious swaggering funk. Sonically different still is the resplendent, shimmering ‘Look Good And You Know It’, singing to his girl to celebrate her beauty. ‘You look good and you know it baby / Go on and own it baby.’ Again, Joanna Cotten and Jonathan Singleton lend a hand to bring back the nostalgic feel to the record and Church lets his vocal range shine along with a really juicy guitar solos. There is a sense building on this track that Church is truly letting loose in a way sonically than he has ever done before, allowing himself to experiment both with the power of his vocal – unafraid to push its range – and push his sound yet further.
‘Bright Side Girl’ is a pluckier, more folk-tinged ballad, a celebration of love and his girl – ‘She pulls me above the pale ? Gives me cover from the gale’ – that sonically is closer to the Church sound we’ve known, before moving into ‘Break It Kind Of Guy.’ Opening with a traditional honky-tonk sound, quickly the track moves back into the funk and bass sound on which Soul began. It’s a defiant track that underlines – as if we didn’t already know – that Church is not one to follow rules. ‘Yeah, I tell my eagle where to fly / If it’s not broke, I’m a break it kind of guy.’ The song feels like a thesis for the entirety of the Heart & Soul project, ‘I wing it how I want / And don’t tell me how to sing it / It’s my damn song.’
This is not to say there’s not tracks to love for purist Church fans, ‘Hell Of A View’ brings back his pop-rock-country sound on this sweet love song, celebrating where he is right now. ‘You holdin’ me holdin’ you / It’s a hell of a view.’ So too, on ‘Where I Wanna Be,’ Church brings back a blues-y jazz edge, rounding out with a glorious addition from Billy Justineau on keys. Elsewhere, ‘Jenny’ is a more stripped-back love song, ‘Bad Mother Trucker’ proffers the grittier side of Church’s southern rock sound and ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones’ offers a simpler southern melodious track about race and life in the South. It feels incredibly real and honest, and is a powerful note to end this mammoth project.
Soul is without a doubt the crowning jewel of this glorious three-part project that showcases the power of Church’s vocal and sound. Church seems to have truly pushed himself sonically and lyrically in a way that we have not seen before, and the result is his best work to date – an astonishing, real, gritty and powerful project. Church continues to amaze.
Heart Track List (Released 16th April)
01. Heart On Fire
02. Heart Of The Night
03. Russian Roulette
04. People Break
05. Stick That In Your Country Song
06. Never Break Heart
07. Crazyland
08. Bunch Of Nothing
09. Love Shine Down
& Track List (Released 20th April)
01. Through My Ray-Bans
02. Doing Life With Me
03. Do Side
04. Kiss Her Goodbye
05. Mad Man
06. Lone Wolf
Soul Track List (Released 23rd April)
01. Rock & Roll Found Me
02. Look Good And You Know It
03. Bright Side Girl
04. Break It Kind Of Guy
05. Hell Of A View
06. Where I Wanna Be
07. Jenny
08. Bad Mother Trucker
09. Lynyrd Skynyrd Jones
