Chris Church - Sit Down
CHRIS CHURCH is the next star of the Big Stir Records roster to roll out a preview of a forthcoming 2025 album, with the new single “Sit Down” out February 14. The latest track from the acclaimed North Carolina pop-rock singer-songwriter, it's a welcome return after Chris's hit 2023 album RADIO TRANSIENT, taking that record's signature sound and pushing it further towards the ambitious, genre-defying melodicism of a new full-length release, coming this Spring. The single is up for pre-order and pre-save now.
Longtime fans of Lenoir, North Carolina songsmith Chris Church (whose string of albums over the past decade, from 2017's LIMITATIONS OF SOURCE TAPE through his latest trilogy on Big Stir Records) have come to expect the unexpected. It's therefore the biggest surprise of all that the new single “Sit Down” starts in the same giddy territory as his most recent work, with taut, jittering rhythms and '80s-infuenced textures reminiscent of the sleek pop of RADIO TRANSIENT. The tension builds as Church's powerful, inimitable vocals anchor the tune to his greater body of work, and then the chorus hits, blowing “Sit Down” wide open. The word for what happens in that moment is “expansive”, and that sums up what awaits fans on the new album.
That's because this time out Chris Church is visiting almost all his old haunts at once, and it's less a tour than a tour de force. It wouldn't do to call the dazzling array of sonic approaches on the forthcoming album OBSOLETE PATH “eclectic”; Church has put his stamp on all of them -- from alt-country to hard rock to jangling college rock and acoustic confessionals, and of course the pure pop rock heard here – on previous albums. The well-earned mastery he brings to them on the new album is impressive in itself, but even more so is the fact that they all sound like no one other than Chris Church, and each song hits with the emotional heft his admirers have come to expect, while defying all other expectations at every turn. It plays like a career summary, but it's cohesively and breathtakingly fresh.
Release details on the new album are just around the corner via Big Stir Records, but for now, “Sit Down” -- if you can remain seated! -- and marvel at the craft and passion of CHRIS CHURCH as displayed on the first single from what's sure to be a definitive record, both for the artist himself and the indie pop landscape of 2025.
