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Above photo from @ericchurchmusic on Instagram

Eric Church released his ninth studio album, Evangeline vs. The Machine on May 2. The album is a bit of a change in tone from his previous work, but it still manages to keep a sense of individuality when placed next to other albums in his discography. Darker and more cinematic, the album is theatrical and dynamic in its own right. 

In an article with Variety, Church discussed the meaning of the album title, stating, “We’re all tied to our phones and we’re tied to this overall machine. And to me, it was creativity versus the mechanism that promotes that creativity. It’s a mechanism that also a lot of times can suppress the creativity, or round the edges and the sharpness of the creativity… This was really about a dichotomy between creativity and the machine that that creativity has to live and breathe in. I’ve seen as I’ve gotten older that it becomes harder and harder to be able to embrace what the creative spirit is, against something – against a world, really – that is disposable.”

A new sound for the chief 

Evangeline vs. The Machine is arranged as one continuous piece, with each track seamlessly flowing into the next. Set against a full orchestral arrangement, the album is unlike anything else that Eric Church has ever released.

The opening track and first single from the album, “Hands of Time,” is obviously the most commercially appealing and is one of the most lighthearted tracks on the album. Set against a more upbeat vibe, the track finds Church grappling with the passage of time. 

In the chorus, he sings, “We ain’t as young as we used to be / But young at heart is so easy / When you let some loud guitars / And words and rhymes / Handle the hands of time.” 

Not only that, but the track also sees Church paying homage to a variety of songs and artists that have undoubtedly influenced his career as a musician. He references Bob Segar’s “Hollywood Nights,” Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved?” and “Redemption Song,” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Tuesday’s Gone,” among others, driving home the concept that music is the way in which Church himself handles the hands of time. 

The song fades out to the sound of a ticking clock, which sets the tone for the remainder of the album. Flowing into the next track, “Bleed On Paper,” we see him acknowledging the craft of songwriting as a whole and where he’s always found comfort – in music. 

He sings, “But I keep on singing what I know between a minor and a major / I keep pulling at the bittersweet and if it ain’t the latest flavor / A little bit devil, a little bit savior / Whole lotta life cutting like a razor / And with some blue ink, a blank page, and an ole six-string / I bleed on paper.”

The third track, “Johnny,” is meant to revisit the character in the Charlie Daniels song “Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Church wrote this after the shooting that took place at The Covenant School in Nashville in 2023. The track sees Church wrestling with the violence and chaos that has become so prevalent in today’s society, urging the character of Johnny to send the devil back to hell. 

Church sings, “Watching my boys play / How different my life was, I was their age / Now machines control people / People shoot at kids / I shudder to think about what the next thing is / Johnny, ole Johnny, where did you go / The devil’s broke out of Georgia / And he’s feasting on our soul.”

“Darkest Hour” was released ahead of the album in the fall of 2024, with all proceeds going to the victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. “Evangeline,” representing one half of the album title, represents a character who is in a battle against societal conformity. Church describes her as an angelic figure whose singing baptizes him in a way. He croons, “Take me down to the wild / Dunk my head into the river / Raise your hands, all hail rock n’ roll / Change my life, wash me clean away / The fate of an amen whisper / For the songs she sings / I’m glad to give my soul.”

“Rocket’s White Lincoln,” is Church at his summer anthem, feel-good best. This track is obviously the most “feel good” on the album, centering around a double date that’s taking place in an old Lincoln. 

The album closes out with a cover of Tom Waits’ “Clap Hands.” Church is no stranger to a cover song, frequently covering some of his favorite songs at live shows and on his other albums. In the interview with Variety, he discussed the meaning behind covering “Clap Hands,” stating, “I was watching a movie or a series and at the end, that Tom Waits song was playing and it was like this big dramatic thing. But I heard a different element of it, and so I grabbed my guitar as it was ending … I paused the movie and I rewound it and I worked the song up when I heard that (in my head). That is not something that was ever on my radar. I knew the song, but it wasn’t something I’d ever thought about.”

Final thoughts 

I will say that the production of this album is not my favorite. I love a horn section and the use of a choir in modern music and I would even go so far as to say that we should be incorporating that more frequently. However, with that being said, I think it’s overdone on this record. Not every track warrants (or even deserves) a boisterous horn section in the background. Additionally, some of the production choices just read as bizarre to me. For one, the 90-second outro at the end of “Bleed on Paper,” might have been forgiven or made sense if it were the final track on the album, but on the second track? It reads as a bit pontifical, and not in the good way. 

Minor gripe on my part as well, but I’ve been waiting for Eric Church to drop a new album for the past few years, so I would have preferred to have at least a few more tracks on the album. Eight tracks, in my humble opinion that nobody asked for, is an extended play, not an album. But I digress. 

Overall, I think the album has a solid sense of self and stands well on its own. While it is a bit of a divergence from Church’s previous work, it’s not particularly a surprise. He’s always altering his sound slightly from album to album with a kind of restlessness, especially since releasing Chief back in 2011. While I wouldn’t necessarily call this his strongest album, it’s worth a listen nonetheless.