The echoes of God in love here, flickering through the silvery rain and the eyes of your lover. The beauty of human love lit by God. The end of the world in a kiss. The sonorous pain of it all. The treacherous joy of being human. No other band captures lyrical and musical poetry in rock form like Derri Daugherty (vocals / guitar, song writer), Steve Hindalong (drums, vocals, additional percussive texture), Dan Michaels (lyricon), and the magnificently talented other sound-artists who comprise the Choir, one of the longest lasting tribes of Christian musicians. Moody, transcendent, powerful bands like Starflyer, Sixpence None the Richer, and Prayer Chain would be unthinkable without the Choir's influence.
This gorgeous, generous 8 CD box set is everything that this band deserves. Although it is a limited edition of 1300, most deserving bands like the Choir, who have put art before commerce, never get this kind of treatment, and it feels like justice that it's been done right. There are some obvious economic restraints evident in the packaging, but the thick, well-designed, and extraordinarily well-researched booklet that comes with the CDs is a perfect accessory. This collection features seven discs encapsulating the albums of this band's incredible couple-decade long career, from the anthemic yet melancholy New Wave of Voices, to the haunting light-psychedelic rock of Free Flying Soul. It also includes one extra CD made up of two new Choir songs, Derri Daugherty and Steve Hindalong solo tracks, as well as fourteen B-sides and oddities from their earliest days as a band.
For the uninitiated, this is accessible but experimental, deeply spiritual rock and roll. One listen to such seminal and sumptuously emotional works as Circle Slide (featuring "About Love," which should have been a worldwide smash of a single), or Kissers & Killers (with some of the best tortured romance masterpieces ever laid to recording tape, "Amazing," and "Weather Girl"), will inspire mad devotion. Derri's vocals are so mesmerizingly melodic, and his lyrics so chillingly specific, that if the music was any less creative, the juxtaposition would be jarring. But the music, perfectly uniting melodic chaos with dynamic discipline in its strummed 'n' jangling six strings, somehow cerebral drumming, and magical electronic sax work, will inspire you to wear these discs out.
More from The Choir
2005O How the Mighty Have Fallen
1996Free Flying Soul
1993Kissers and Killers
2000Live at Cornerstone 2000
1994Speckled Bird
2000Flap Your Wings
