Album Review – Eric Church’s “Evangeline vs. The Machine”

Reviews 109 Comments

photo: Robby Klein


Not Applicable to the Country DDS.


Congratulations Eric Church fans, this is what you waited four years for—seven new songs and a Tom Waits cover spectacularly overproduced by Jay Joyce. Evangeline vs. The Machine is right, with The Machine winning, symbolized by the monstrosity this album became from what were likely good intentions, but good intentions that fell under the weight of process and a self-indulgent approach.

Granted, large swaths of the Church Choir and other constituents will be singing this album’s praises, and hey, it certainly delivers some positive talking points. It’s outside the box if nothing else. With Eric Church, we’ve come to expect the unexpected, and that definitely was delivered here. Church is not one to play Music Row’s puppet, or to fulfill expectations projected upon him, genre or otherwise. He most certainly establishes his own autonomy and singularity through Evangeline vs. The Machine.

But the fundamental issue with this album isn’t even necessarily the album itself. It’s that Eric Church doesn’t really know who he is as an artist, and never really has, while he’s also been suffering from spectacular boredom in the country space ever since Chief went Platinum. Though his instincts are probably right to branch out creatively, refuse to be tethered to expectations, and fearlessly explore uncharted sonic territory, that’s only what this album does on the surface.

Critics are already braying over Evangeline vs. The Machine as being incredibly bold and progressive—many of whom loathe country music; that’s why they find such favor with a project like this. And make no mistake about it, there is little or nothing about this album that is “country.” But there’s not really much that’s truly bold and progressive about the album either. Putting drum loops on a song that also features French horn might be “bold” on paper. But the result is just a musical mess.


And though all the chamber strings, horns, machine beats, and sometimes really strong vocal performances by Eric Church disguise the signal, when you actually strip everything back and ponder the songs themselves, some of them are simply Music Row stock. Others are not, and include inspired moments speaking to recent tragedies in Eric Church’s life. But these moments are often buried under the weight of layers upon layers of unnecessary production and weird decisions.

It’s not fair to call Evangeline vs. The Machine a bad album as much as it’s misguided and messy. Adding Gospel singers can help bring out the emotion in a song and allow it to soar. But making them sing strange, Polyphonic Spree-style theater arrangements is just annoying. Using a French horn to inject a classic mood into a moment might be useful. Putting it on six of the eight tracks is just silly.

Evangeline vs. The Machine is producer Jay Joyce at his worst, where every square inch of the record must be hyper stylized to the point where it snuffs out the simple beauty of a melody or lyrical expression, and nothing is allowed to breathe. But Eric Church deserves some credit here too. The beauty of country music is in its simplicity. But everything simple and straightforward has been eradicated on this album.

You’ll either love this album and think it’s the best thing you’ve heard in years, or you’ve heard albums from Sturgill Simpson, Billy Strings, Daniel Donato, or Garrett T. Capps, and think this album is stretching to be artsy. It will be chic to say this album is groundbreaking and spellbinding, and perhaps for a certain audience, it is. They’ll also say the eight songs aren’t enough. But for others, Eric Church’s Evangeline vs. The Machine is eight songs too many.


5/10

Song Reviews:



1. “Hands Of Time” (Eric Church, Scooter Carusoe)

This is the best song on the album, and in many respects, a great example of what this album could have been if it would have remained more grounded. “Hands Of Time” comes with an actual melody and a cool rhythmic shift at the end of the chorus drawing you in, and the clock noises at the conclusion of the song enhance the imaginative nature of the track as opposed to hindering it like so many of the other production decisions on the album.

The writing here is a little light, citing song names and lyrical lines to try and evoke nostalgia, while certain verses just feel like placeholders. But the pentameter and rhyming works with the music of the song. “Hands of Time” is easy to enjoy.



2. “Bleed On Paper” (Tucker Beathard, Casey Beathard, Monty Criswell)

This is a pretty well-written country song about expressing yourself as a country artist that is turned into something that sounds like the theme to Rocky with wild amounts of strings, brass, and backup singers adding layers upon layers of sound until it’s fit for a theatrical soundtrack as opposed to a country record. Perhaps if the entire album wasn’t overproduced, you could get into this track individually. But it fits a pattern that gets worse as the album goes on.

Despite the wide and sweeping production, “Bleed On Paper” still works … until the 90-second outtro that is completely superfulous, and is Jay Joyce attempting to put his “artsy” stamp on this record. Perhaps if this outtro was put at the ending of the album, it would be more forgivable, and you could enjoy it for what it is. At the end of the second song, it’s simply a distraction, and a non-sequitur. It’s an indulgence.

3. “Johnny” (Eric Church, Luke Laird, Brett Warren)

This song is meant to revisit the hero character in the Charlie Daniels song “Devil Went Down To Georgia,” and you do want to give it credit to the song for its ingenuity on this point. Though similar to the first song on the album (“Hand of Time”), “Johnny” borrows a little too much from a previous song instead of attempting to tell its own story. Within the writing, you hear Church wrestle with the demons of the onset of intrusive technology and school shooters. But it’s strange to hear Church call out technological encroachment when he employs drum loops, synth bass, and “programming” on this album on nearly every track.

Nonetheless, this could have been then best song on the album, but the theater kid vocal parts are so distracting, so ill-advised, and usurp anything “country” out of this track, it undermines it almost entirely. Just like “Bleed On Paper,” this could have been a great country song that was destroyed by production.



4. “Storm In Their Blood” (Eric Church)

Great writing by Eric Church about the genetic predisposition of some to be prone to anger and outburst. If you’re one of these souls, you know it can be a challenge and a life’s purpose learning how to channel this passion into something positive. But again, it’s these dumb vocal chorus parts that sounds like Jay Joyce set up on a MIDI controller so he could play them like a piano that undermine everything cool about this song, and make you feel like you’re listening to some sort of New Age track.

5. “Darkest Hour” (Eric Church)

Church released this song ahead of the album, with all proceeds going to North Carolina hurricane disaster relief. Beyond what any of us feel about his music, or some of his other behavior over the years, Eric Church took the point in trying to help his home state with recovery after Helene, and deserves immense credit for that.

“Darkest Hour” is the worst song on a disappointing album, and perhaps the worst song of Eric Church’s career. Electronic drum programming mixed with French horn and falsetto singing just try too hard to be something special and emotional, and simply result in an audio curiosity that is hard to stomach. A true swing and miss.



6. “Evangeline” (Church, Luke Laird, Barry Dean)

This is one of the better songs on the album, and perhaps, the best, where you can tolerate the French horn and layered in backup chorus parts … until the 2:40 mark, and the genius that is Jay Joyce decides what this soaring and emotionally organic song needs is a cliche electronic drum beat, absolutely eradicating any and all momentum the song was building toward.

Once again the song borrows a key lyric from another song (Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind”) while talking too much shop about being a musician, which speaks to Church’s boredom and search for inspiration. Still, this song could have been great, or much better. But aggressive production does it in.

7. “Rocket’s White Lincoln” (Eric Church)

“Rocket’s White Lincoln” probably includes the most simplistic writing of the album. It’s just sort of a mindless driving song. But it’s a good example of what this album could have been with horns, strings, and choral singers if the production just let the song proceed without getting in its way. It still feels like a completely misguided way to render these songs in recorded form. But it could have worked better if Jay Joyce’s inclination to monkey with everything hadn’t gotten in the way.



8. “Clap Hands” (Tom Waits)

Church deserves credit for being a conduit to introducing his audience to cool contributors to American music, from Ray Wylie Hubbard, to Jeff Tweedy, to Rhiannon Giddens, and in this case, Tom Waits. But this version offers nothing except moments to wince as Waits’ original version is ruined by electronic beats, which undermines the whole mood of the song, which is the organic rhythm of hand clapping and the way it evokes something carnal in the human soul.

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