Marching Church, the onetime solo project and now bona fide big band formed
by singer Elias Bender R nnenfelt, has followed its leader's muse everywhere
from their early days of 4-track lo-fi tapes, to Sam Cooke-tinged soul on This
World is Not Enough, to outr free jazz on their most recent Coming Down 12". For
Telling It Like It Is, R nnenfelt and his bandmates have foregone much of their
past proclivity for wild stylistic swings in favor of thematically unified, complicated,
but fundamentally cohesive song arrangements; the studio itself at times
acting as an auxiliary band member. The result is the most focused vision of
Marching Church yet, but one that has lost none of its swagger, and none of its
power to enthrall.
