Untitled #23 - The Church
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. They have done many good, verging on excellent records, over the past decade, but only this has the songs and the atmosphere to be placed next to their best albums.
  2. The collection presents Big Music on a manageable scale, and even if the songs reference fire, water and sky, the long-running Aussie quartet forgoes the kind of sonic grandiosity such subject matter tends to invite.
  3. 22 albums later, the Church give us one of their very best--meticulously wrought, mildly hallucinatory musicscapes marked by an unrepentant infatuation with fantasy and dreams, serendipity and fear, melancholy and hope.
  4. The album is at once sparse yet warm and layered, lush and thick lipped, engorged with beauty. The Church have proven yet again they are masters of dreamy and dark rock, prolific and inventive.
  5. Minor quibbles aside, Untitled #23 finds The Church doling out sonic pleasures with masterful restraint.
  6. The Church are still producing at a high level, and Untitled #23 is a must for anyone who's followed them this far.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 15 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. Simply a great album! Since Priest=Aura a gradually maturating music. U23 shows how sublime and wide the guys can bring the essence to the auditor. It let you leave for a moment the real world...for a more real one. Full Review »
  2. AaronC
    10
    Magnificent once again. I just cant listen to it enough!
  3. richardm
    10
    4 lifetimes of gorgeous ideas distilled into this one (for a newer church album) abbreviated adventure. succint. yet transcendent. varied, yet cohesive. Full Review »