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Untitled #23
by
Untitled #23 Image
Metascore
82

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.9

Universal acclaim- based on 18 Ratings

  • Summary: The popular Australian rock band releases its latest album on its own Unorthodox label.

Top Track

Anchorage
Scales of an angel Wings of a snake Living here in the future With the racket that you make Memory of a scream Heart of the flame Talking in a... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. AllMusic
    90
    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. PopMatters
    80
    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.
  3. Prefix Magazine
    80
    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.
  4. Hartford Courant
    80
    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.
  5. The A.V. Club
    75
    Minor quibbles aside, Untitled #23 finds The Church doling out sonic pleasures with masterful restraint.
  6. Pitchfork
    70
    The Church are still producing at a high level, and Untitled #23 is a must for anyone who's followed them this far.

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. BrianM
    May 29, 2009
    10
    We all know that great albums are sonic journeys, taking us to some place we haven't been before. None of the ten tracks on Untitled 23 We all know that great albums are sonic journeys, taking us to some place we haven't been before. None of the ten tracks on Untitled 23 has the immediate impact of Metropolis or Under the Milky Way, but in time they grow to in stature, although they will never singles. Listened in its entirety, the whole album grows because the songs work so well together. Space Savior would not drive so furiously if it did not follow the ethereal Pangaea and Happenstance, while the album closer, Operetta, pulls forth all that came before into a crescendo of slowly swirling choruses. Here, Kilbey's voice, more so than in previous outings, demands attention, not because he desperately need to be heard and seen like an angst ridden youth or an American Idol contestant, but because he has something to say and the ability to say in his natural voice. The Church, for the most part, have been forgotten by the music industry, and that has been a great liberation for them. Untitled 23 proves once again what we have known: that many of the great journeys are to be discovered outside the public eye.… Expand
  2. Buonomanp
    Nov 16, 2011
    10
    Simply a great album! Since Priest=Aura a gradually maturating music. U23 shows how sublime and wide the guys can bring the essence to theSimply 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.… Expand
  4. JayP
    May 31, 2009
    10
    Fantastic "album" in the truest since -- a beautiful journey from start to finish. The individual parts are strong and self-assured, but even Fantastic "album" in the truest since -- a beautiful journey from start to finish. The individual parts are strong and self-assured, but even more impressive as a whole work. One of their best.… Expand
  5. richardm
    Aug 2, 2009
    10
    4 lifetimes of gorgeous ideas distilled into this one (for a newer church album) abbreviated adventure. succint. yet transcendent. varied, 4 lifetimes of gorgeous ideas distilled into this one (for a newer church album) abbreviated adventure. succint. yet transcendent. varied, yet cohesive.… Expand
  6. AaronC
    Aug 16, 2009
    10
    Magnificent once again. I just cant listen to it enough!
  7. MarkY
    Jun 2, 2009
    9
    A continuation of beautiful and thought-provoking music.
  8. JyotirmayaD
    Jul 30, 2009
    7
    Not as gorgeous as their previous "Uninvited like the Clouds" album, but it is also full of beautiful sounds which are like heavenly Church music!

See all 12 User Reviews

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