Awesome News: The Church of Philadelphia Finally Returns, and With a New Album on the Way

Well, wow. After dealing with a house full of sick people the past few days, this was seriously some welcome good news.

See, way, way back in 2007, yours truly was frankly pretty disillusioned with music in general. All the bands I loved from around here were dying off or moving away, it seemed like, and I was having a harder and harder time liking any of it, y’know? I liked my CD/record collection, and I liked a handful of bands still sticking it out, but I couldn’t really give a damn about anything new.

Then I heard {The Church of Philadelphia} (and The Western Civilization, too, but that’s a slightly different story). The band sent me their self-titled debut EP seemingly out of nowhere, and despite some twitchiness on my part about my heathenish self reviewing an explicitly Christian band, I was pretty stunned; it was amazing, like some gospelized roots-rock band swept together with Springsteen and (early) The Arcade Fire.

When I finally got to see them live, playing for a small-yet-appreciative crowd at Walter’s on Washington, they floored me yet again. They played like they’d never done — or wanted to do — anything else in their lives, serenely blazing through “This Time Around” (which still lives on my iPod/iPhone, and still gives me chills when I hear it, seven years after that first listen), “Never Give Up,” and “Recover,” my favorites off that first release. I was sold.

And then…well, it ended, about a year after I first heard the band. Happily, actually, with the wedding of Brian Tharpe and Lindsay Crouse, which was obviously a great thing, but then the two of them went to Uganda, and The Church of Philadelphia went away, seemingly for good.

Or not, as it turns out, and that’s the very, very, very good news hinted at up above (and in the title of this post, of course). The Church of Philadelphia re-formed in 2012, apparently, but they’ve been keeping things quiet ’til now, recording their long-awaited second album, We’re Gonna Dance Tonight. It’ll be out a month from today, actually, April 25th, and I am totally, completely psyched.

If you want a little taste of what it’ll sound like, by the way, the band’s offering up their first single, “Unto You,” for free on their website for the low, low price of joining their mailing list. It’s pretty different from the old stuff, much more “rock” and less roots-folk, but that epic, skyward-pointing, majestic feel is very much still there.

The Church has also put together a teaser trailer video for the album, which is also freaking awesome, and you need to watch it:

Keep an eye out for more from these folks, including the actual album release next month, and actual real-live shows, maybe? I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed. Glad to have y’all back.