Release Date: (November 1, 2001)
Label: Resolve Records
Producer:

December Hotel
Overall Rating:  +++-

(Flowing Over Me)

The Choir has long been one of my favorite bands. They write accessible, melodic rock songs, are stunning musicians, and always manage to have a sound that is truly alternative to the rest of the world. Flap Your Wings is their latest sonic landscape, a collection of solid songs played by musicians free to exercise their creativity. The title track almost sounds like the clouds opening up and a ray of light coming down with the listener taken up through the hole and beyond. The fuzzy, chaotic bass line is juxtaposed perfectly against the clean, ringing guitars that give a perfectly heady feeling to the listener. There is a bit of Radiohead to this song but as with all Choir influences, these are distilled to their essence and reworked to create fresh and original sounds. "Shiny Floor" buzzes nicely through the mind with Derri Daugherty's incomparable spacey wall of guitar textures that draws from such bands as The Church and early U2. As always, Steve Hindalong has created lyrics that conjure unique metaphors such as "I'll try to be agile like a Saskatoon lynx". The Choir always has managed to stride the fence with just the right amount of sentiment, humor, and seriousness. "I Don't Mean Any Harm" has an especially catchy melody and lyrics to which every married man can relate: "I called to tell you/ That I'm sorry to have such fun and leave you all alone / I'm gonna paint the hallway tomorrow / Say it won't be too late to atone." As a song that every father will feel, "Cherry Bomb" is an ode to small children who "spill grape juice on me" with Tim Chandler's trippy, slippery bass line that sounds like a lumbering, drunken elephant which incidentally only causes slightly less damage than a small child. The stunning "Sunny" shows the Choir at their most creative with a sultry, fuzzed out feel. Dan Michaels adds his smoldering sax to this song that sounds like it has the band bubbling up from the bottom of a very dark lake. Mixed in with this aural frenzy are a number of acoustic songs that are just as well written as the rest but seem a bit out of place and simplistic against the grandeur of the atmospheric, electrically charged, feedback-laden songs that dominate the album. A small achilles' heel, if you will. It's been a long wait since the last Choir album, but worth every painful second. If you can't find this album locally, go to www.thechoir.net.
 

~classicalgas
 

The release of a new Choir album, for me anyway, has always been an event.There are four or five bands who I feel are miles away from the pack; and the Choir are one of those bands. Steve Hindalong and Derri Daugherty, who together are the bands' creative nucleus, continue album after album to explore new sounds and new sonic textures along with new methods of production and craftsmanship. Hindalongs' quirky, personal, spiritual lyrics always give much food for thought and meditation; as does his mastery of percussion. The danger, I fear, with these "old guard" bands like the Choir, 77's, DA, and the like is that we begin to take them for granted. Another great Choir album? Big deal. That's what we expect from them. There is a tendency to forget just how special this band is.There are 8 brand new songs on FLAP YOUR WINGS; as well as two reworkings of previously released tunes. "Beautiful Scandalous Night" originally appeared on the first AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS album; and its' electric reworking here does little to inprove upon the original. "Flowing Over Me" was originally a Daugherty solo track that ended up on a sampler disc from a year or two ago. Of the new songs, the most notable are "Mercy Lives Here", which stands alongside "Sad Face" and "Sentimental Song" as one of the finest songs they've ever recorded; and "Hey Gene", a surprisingly upbeat ode to the recently departed Gene Eugene. Derri's warm, anything but rock and roll sounding voice is the perfect accompaniment to Hindalong's sweet and sentimental lyrics. If you've never heard the Choir, pick this up and hear what a special band you've been missing. If you're one of the old faithful, this disc is a long awaited breath of fresh air.

~Danny Thweatt