Eric Church – Evangeline vs. The Machine (2025) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Eric Church – Evangeline vs. The Machine (2025)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 36:04 minutes | 431 MB | Genre: Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © EMI Music Nashville (ERN)

Eric Church, one of country music’s most fearless storytellers, marks another ambitious and sonically rich chapter in his groundbreaking career with ‘Evangeline vs. The Machine’. A self-proclaimed ‘album artist’, Church has always championed the power of cohesive storytelling, and ‘Evangeline vs. The Machine’ is no exception. ‘An album is a snapshot in time that lasts for all time’, Church shares of the creative approach behind the highly-anticipated project. ‘I believe in that time-tested tradition of making records that live and breathe as one piece of art – I think it’s important’.After the triple-album sprawl of 2021’s Heart & Soul, Eric Church pared his latest back to eight songs—but it’s just as ambitious. With the exceptions of Sturgill Simpson and Margo Price, who both wear the country label like they’re allergic to it, no one in the genre is breaking more “rules” and doing their own thing. (See Church’s 2024 Stagecoach set, populated with more covers—of songs by Al Green, the Pointer Sisters and even Tupac—than originals.) That said, there are familiar themes here. It’s not unusual for country songs to cite other artists, but no one wears their fandom more fervently than Church, who has name-checked Springsteen, the Hag, Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, Nirvana, Janis Joplin and so many more in song. (“As I get older, I’m looking for things that make me feel not as old,” Church recently said. “I can honestly say that when I hear music … I feel like I did then ….”) Set to bluesy country rock and with gospel choir-style backing vocals—led by his not-so-secret weapon, the phenomenal Joanna Cotten—that flavor the whole album, the lyrics of “Hands of Time” roll out like a catalog of Church influences: “And it’s ‘Back In Black,’ ‘Shook Me All Night Long’/ ‘Could You Be Loved,’ ‘Redemption Song’/ ‘Luckenbach,’ ‘Home Sweet Home’/ I’m ‘Where I Belong,’ ‘Ain’t Nothing Wrong.'” Power ballad “Johnny” calls on the character from Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” to chase our contemporary demons—the machines and devices that control us—back to hell with his fiddle. You won’t find that instrument on the song, but there is a string section to accompany the operatic chorus.

There’s a full complement of brass and woodwind on Evangeline, too, giving a ’70s soul vibe to ass-shaker “Rocket’s White Lincoln” and swampy “Bleed on Paper.” (In another musical allusion, Church references being offered a deal at the crossroads: “But I don’t like the feel of a rattlesnake boot! heel! On! My! Neck!”) When the horns blast near the end, it’s one of the most dramatic moments in Church’s catalog. It’s immediately followed by an indulgent outro of shadowy, slow sax—a mood-setter that makes clear this is an album, not a modern jumble of singles and filler. Trumpet serves as hypeman on “Hands of Time” and leads the march of “Storm in Their Blood,” a very Church take on the orchestral Nashville sound. (It’s also the rare country song to name-check Leonides and the Lion of Judah.) A flute delivers hopeful trills as the choir cheers “Don’t give up!” on soul-stirring “Darkest Hour.” Church signed over his publishing royalties from this song to help his home state of North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, and it showcases his most vulnerable falsetto to grand effect. The concepts of hope, and nostalgia, continue on “Evangeline,” a soaring Southern rock number about being baptized in rock ‘n’ roll. “Chasing a song/ Between a verse and a bridge/ I know life is/ Just a chorus we sing along/ And sometimes I think I’m knocking on the door of heaven/ Sometimes I feel like a highway to hell,” Church sings. In the hands of someone else, those lyrics could feel phoned in. But he delivers them as naturally as breathing air. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:

1-1. Eric Church – Hands Of Time (03:32)
1-2. Eric Church – Bleed On Paper (05:39)
1-3. Eric Church – Johnny (05:03)
1-4. Eric Church – Storm In Their Blood (03:30)
1-5. Eric Church – Darkest Hour (05:48)
1-6. Eric Church – Evangeline (04:40)
1-7. Eric Church – Rocket’s White Lincoln (04:03)
1-8. Eric Church – Clap Hands (03:45)

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