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Strange Strangers

by Devon Church

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Jason Wooderson 96
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Jason Wooderson 96 Just got Strange Strangers in the mail… Phenomenal… plain and simple.. AMAZING job sir.
raeforr
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raeforr You ever have an existential crisis but feel almost relieved or grateful afterwards? I think this album is asking that of the listener, and I obliged. The music is a bit more ornate than his first solo outing, but still dour, simple, and pretty. Church's lyrics are what you're here for; for me, they're a nostalgia trip to spiritual journeys of decades prior, with all of the naivete and embarrassing revelations and questions. This album pairs well with a glass of something, and I dig it! Favorite track: Flash Of Lightning In A Clear Blue Sky.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

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1.
Slouching toward bethlehem Giving birth to myself again Wondering where my body begins And where the bacteria ends Lord, if i find the way To your superposition Promise you’ll whisper to me The number i’m thinking Surely stranger things have happened Surely stranger things occur Surely stranger things have happened Maybe in another world Surely stranger things have happened But if they have i haven’t heard Just one word Spoke so soft Deafening the whole world Rolling the stone from my tomb Into a pornographic sunrise Empty blossoms in my empty womb Tender bodies smeared across the sky Lover when you comfort me Wild horses and women Gallop on the froth of the sea Taking me with them
 Surely stranger things have happened Surely stranger things occur Surely stranger things have happened Maybe in another world Surely stranger things have happened But if they have i haven’t heard Just one word Spoke so soft Deafening the whole world
2.
I finally understand it lord The tree of life, the flaming sword I know now why you turned us both away But eve and I we’re getting bored First we die and then we’re born Still we don’t know what to make out of this clay This is paradise (but not for us) It’s for rays of light and specks of dust The black and white piano keys of days We sing between your ivory teeth Our voices rise and fall beneath The sweet psychotic melodies you play
 Eve’s got grass stains on her clothes I’ve got dirt all over me We don’t know where this river goes Still we follow where it leads Jesus was a genius But I prefer his early stuff No one talks that much ‘bout carpentry these days But there’s plenty you can do with wood I’d build a cabin if I could Someplace where the trees aren’t filled with snakes
 I saw a snake once in a tree I swear to god it spoke to me Said ‘I’ve got something you and your lady both should taste’
 Well back then we were down to try Anything, thought we’d never die Never knew a fruit could make you feel this strange
 Eve’s got grass stains on her clothes I’ve got dirt all over me We don’t know where this river goes Still we follow where it leads Well knowledge is as knowledge does And good and evil’s relative But beauty’s something that’s beyond belief
 A garden’s a good place to grow But i prefer a wild rose The kind that once you pick you’re bound to bleed
 Now, eve and I, we walk toward A sunset painted on cardboard Like a couple cut out from a magazine I finally understand it lord The tree, the snake, the flaming sword And I thank you for the fruit you offered me
3.
Kate moss in a dream i walked Her home through chinatown Her eyes were sad and brown She said, ‘god knows how i get so lost, I never will be found But no one’s looking at me now’ She said ‘i’m so bored of the apocalypse Time don’t stop, its just endlessly carrying on Like nothing in the world was wrong’ ‘When we speak,’ she said, ‘we wake the dead, But they won’t be resurrected, Cuz nothing in this world in perfected’ So we walked on in the carcinogens From the tree of life to the river of sin Cuz nothing in this world is rejected She said ‘I’m so bored of the apocalypse There’s no antichrist, just this anticlimax carrying on Like nothing in the world was wrong’ In a tower made of iron ore She told me ‘get down on all fours’ I said ‘lady, anything to please you’ She said ‘maybe i’m the whore of babylon And you’re the beast i rode in on’ I said ‘lady i could never defeat you’ So i crawled out on the window ledge And i looked down at the water’s edge And i leapt out into the wounded sky As the scales fell from our eyes I said ‘nothing in the world feels right’ She said ‘i’m so bored of the apocalypse My heart don’t stop it just beats and skips It’ll bleed out now, it just drips and drips Til every last drop is gone And nothing nothing in the world feels wrong’
4.
Ha-lalala-lala-lala-hallelujah I took the garbage out Ha-lalala-lala-lala-hallelujah I had a dream about Nothing worth remembering now But everything changed somehow I’ll never be the same Ha-lalala-lala-lala-hallelujah I took the train downtown Ha-lalala-lala-lala-hallelujah I felt like kneeling down Kneeling in the aisle to pray No god, nobody to save Just people hanging round. I fell under your protection Hungry as a ghost You showed me perfection Tied the rainbow Around my throat Holy, all is holy here Ha-lalala-lala-lala-hallelujah I’ve finally got nothing to say Ha-lalala-lala-lala-hallelujah I’m drinking the black champagne Sipping up empty space Nothing lost, nothing to replace Your cup is always full I was under the impression That you were gonna be nice Well, now that it’s out of the question I’m gonna run for my life Holy, all is holy Honey there’s a hole in every living thing Holy, all is holy, there’s a hole in the sky where the sun used to be Holy, all is holy, there’s a hole in the earth where they empty out the sea Holy, all is holy, we got holes in our hands and holes in our feet Holy, all is holy here.
5.
Dreamer, With your head in the clouds With your foot on the stairs As they spiral around Dreamer, with your heart in your mouth you keep climbing you keep diving down i was amazed when you lifted your gaze toward me such a strange loop to see and be seen you turned away, something ghostly remained in my mind such a thin line between yours and mine drifting on the water like the skies reflection falling like a curtain in the ten directions i’d like to surround you so that you feel completely held completely here completely real dreamer, we’re like fog on the mirror it gets clearer when we disappear dreamer, i can see it in your eyes flash of lightning in a clear blue sky i was amazed you reflected the rays of light such a bright moon stainless and pure you turned away and I saw my true face in the night such a thin line between mine and yours drifting on the water like the skies reflection falling like a curtain in the ten directions i’d like to surround you so that you feel completely held completely here completely real
6.
Ephemera 03:50
I was weary And you took me in your arms In your arms I couldn’t see you But you held me like the light Held the dark Strangers Terror on the verge of joy Ephemera ephemera Dreamers First we’re here and then we’re gone Ephemera ephemera We go The way we come I was screaming Like a baby to the void To the void I couldn’t hear you But you held me like the silence Held the noise Strange strangers Does the black cat got your tongue? Ephemera ephemera Dream dreamers Turning nothing into one Ephemera ephemera We go The way we come The pavement Rippled like water When she walked In sandals of light The words felt Strange in my mouth Falling out Like teeth in a dream I was dreaming ‘Til you shook me by the arm By the arm Now i see you And i know we’re sleeping And we’ve never come to harm Strangers See how we shimmer in the sun Ephemera ephemera Dreamers Like angels sleeping on the lawn Ephemera ephemera Strange strangers Turning nothing into one Ephemera ephemera Dream dreamers First we’re here and then we’re gone Ephemera ephemera We go The way we come
7.
i can’t remember a word you said but you’re rattling around in my head as i walk on this misty lane lights going out in my brain i can’t remember a single word but your voice was all that i heard i know we never saw eye to eye you saw the color of an empty sky you know the thing about the past, angel is that it never passed at all. and i’ve been wishing you were here, my dear oh haven’t we been here before? your shadow’s at my door. winter’s come my springtime lover autumn’s kissed our summer lips we were born for the end of the world we’re so bored of the apocalypse i can’t seem to recall your face the images warp and fade but in the night your deep green eyes flicker like fireflies you know the thing about the past, angel? is that it never passed at all. and i’ve been wishing you were here, my dear. oh haven’t we been here before?
 your shadow’s at my door. winter’s come…
8.
Since I Fell 05:51
since i fell from the tree i’ve fallen in circles trembling like a leaf on the wind the wind blows fire burns the forest is gone i can not return where i’m from by your willow tree let me land on the banks of your river i’ll watch the moon dance on the water oh lord your heavenly light everything everything everything held by the night oh lord your haunted mind nothing no nothing no nothing escapes from your time oh lord your holy breath everyone everyone everyone loves you to death oh lord your infallible hands nothing no nothing no nothing can slip from your grasp oh lord your beautiful face everything everything everything falls into place oh lord your immaculate heart everything everything everything falling apart
9.
Deer Park 01:49

about

Devon Church is a singer-songwriter hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba and based in New York City. He was, for many years, a multi-instrumentalist, co-writer and producer of the dreampop duo Exitmusic, whose album, Passage (Secretly Canadian), Pitchfork described as “insurgent, cinematic, and sometimes brilliant.” In 2018, the same year that Exitmusic released it’s swan song, The Recognitions (felte), Church released his solo debut, We Are Inextricable (felte), which employed the textural electronic elements he had harnessed during the Exitmusic years in the service of a songwriting style rooted in the folk rock tradition, with deep nods to Cohen and Dylan. Having gigged throughout the US in 2019, Church set to work recording his latest offering, Strange Strangers, while seeking refuge from the global pandemic in a barn in rural Pennsylvania.

After his apartment in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint burned down, Church and his partner (now wife) Ada Roth relocated to Manhattan’s northern tip, where he would spend days wandering the woods and gardens surrounding The Met Cloisters. His time there (they’ve since made it back to Brooklyn), his deepening relationship, and his growing interest in Buddhism provided the album’s moodboard. The opening track, “Slouching Toward Bethlehem,” is an ironic complaint sung by an itinerant Adam & Eve to their absent father, a kind of gnostic protest ballad in waltz time. While Church was certainly raised in a Christian home, he explains that his use of biblical imagery is often a foil for other cosmic messages - gleaned from psychedelics, love affairs, Buddhism and Kafka - and an homage to the tradition of classic songwriters. Meanwhile, Flash of Lightning in A Clear Blue Sky trades in some classic Buddhist metaphors while simultaneously seeming like it is being sung to a lover. The lyrics perform dual-duties throughout. They could be interpreted as songs of either spiritual or romantic longing - and homecoming - or both simultaneously.

The largely self-produced album sounds as if Apollo-era Eno had wrested the controls (and the handgun) from Phil Spector halfway through the recording of Death of a Ladies Man. The atmospheric elements of Church’s past productions are sublimated throughout the album, put into the service of tape-saturated vocals, combo organs and guitars. His voice, grown more confident and understated since his debut, still ranges from a laconic Lee Hazelwood hangover to a smoky growl, but it smooths out nicely on tracks like the intensely melodic and propulsive ”Flash of Lightning in a Clear Blue Sky.” The angelic backing vocals by Roth (who also co-directed two delightfully strange videos for the album) lend an aura of dreamlike lightness in contrast to the baritone of the album's world weary narrator.

A sense of cosmic black-humor has crept into Church’s lyrics, which deal with a sort of bewildered pilgrim’s progress through various spiritual and material Bardo states. "Jesus was a genius," sings the Adam character in This is Paradise, "but I prefer his early stuff." And on the languidly psychedelic ”Slouching Toward Bethlehem,” in the midst of a string section and what sounds like a choir of monks, Church reflects lysergically on selfhood itself:

Slouching toward Bethlehem
Giving birth to myself again
Wondering where my body begins
And where the bacteria ends

Strange Strangers borrows its title from the Marxist eco-philosopher Timothy Morton: ‘The strangeness of strange strangers is itself strange, meaning the more we know about an entity the stranger it becomes.’ On Ephemera, Church seems to lament the mysterious unknowability of these objects of our deepest desires and fears, but he does so with defiant exuberance, his ecstatically strummed acoustic guitar threatening to go off the rails. “I was weary and you took me in your arms," he sings to the other (a lover, a god?). "I couldn’t see you, but you held me like the light holds the dark.”

credits

released April 7, 2023

℗ + © felte 2022
All Songs Written, Performed, Recorded & Mixed by Devon Church
Except “Ephemera” Recorded & Mixed by Gabriel Galvin
Drums on “Ephemera” by Gabriel Galvin
Hand Percussion on “Ephemera” by Chris Campisi
Violin on “Flash of Lightning in a Clear Blue Sky” & “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” by Jesse Kotansky
Backing vocals on “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”, “This is Paradise (But Not For Us)”, “Bored of the Apocalypse”, “All is Holy (A432)”, “Flash of Lightning in a Clear Blue Sky”, “Ephemera”& “Winter’s Come” by Ada Roth
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri @ Black Knoll Studios, NY USA
Photography by Roeg Cohen
Artwork by Ada Roth
Design by Chris Campisi

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