A Box of Birds

A Box of Birds
Studio album by
The Church
Released21 September 1999
Recorded1999
GenresAlternative rock, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic rock, dream pop
LabelsFestival, Cooking Vinyl, Thirsty Ear
ProducersDave Trump, Tim Powles
The Church chronology
Hologram of Baal
(1998)		 A Box of Birds
(1999)		 After Everything Now This
(2002)

A Box of Birds is the twelfth album by the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, released in September 1999. It consists of cover versions of tracks by artists who were influential on the group's music.

The album was released after the band's decision to abandon an already-complete live album and was recorded and mixed in 10 days. Guitarist Marty Willson-Piper said the band had played several covers in its gigs over the years, including "The Porpoise Song", "It's All Too Much" and "Cortez the Killer" – "and we thought, why not put them on a record. So we came along with our own ideas. Tim wanted to do an Iggy Pop number, Peter wanted "Cortez", Steve wanted Kevin Ayers and I wanted to do Alex Harvey. We had to pick 10 after an initial list of about 40."

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusicStarStarStar

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Original ArtistLength
1."The Faith Healer"Alex Harvey, Hugh McKennaThe Sensational Alex Harvey Band7:35
2."It's All Too Much"George HarrisonThe Beatles6:10
3."Hiroshima Mon Amour"John Foxx, Billy Currie, Warren CannUltravox!4:27
4."The Porpoise Song"Gerry Goffin, Carole KingThe Monkees4:28
5."Decadence"Kevin AyersKevin Ayers9:14
6."The Endless Sea"Jim Osterberg Jr.Iggy Pop4:33
7."Friction"Tom VerlaineTelevision5:11
8."All the Young Dudes"David BowieMott the Hoople4:10
9."Silver Machine"Dave Brock, Robert CalvertHawkwind4:57
10."Cortez the Killer"Neil YoungNeil Young with Crazy Horse11:08

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Holmgren, Magnus. "The Church". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Scatena, Dino (7 October 1999). "Box of Birds review". Daily Telegraph. Sydney. pp. T21.
  3. ↑ Scatena, Dino (16 March 2000). "The Church resurrection". Daily Telegraph. Sydney. pp. T21.
  4. ↑ Buivids, Amanda (5 March 2000). "One out of the box for Church". Sunday Herald Sun. Melbourne. p. 98.
  5. ↑ A Box of Birds at AllMusic