The cover may have looked like something of a goth record of the era, though then again not many goths would have used pink as the dominant color of an album. On this,
the Church's third full album, the band consolidated the advances of
Blurred Crusade well; if
Seance isn't as immediately striking as the first two albums, it still has its share of winners, starting with the opening "Fly." Its string synth-touched, stripped-down arrangement almost sounded like something from
the Chameleons' quieter moments, but the following "One Day" returned
the Church to more familiar ringing yet forceful guitar territory. One very curious thing about this song and many of the others on the album has to with the drumming -- while Richard Ploog very much remains the credited drummer, here and on many other cuts nearly everything sounds produced by a particularly muffled drum machine. Whether or not one was used, the result is at once stiff and more than a little underwhelming, making what should be stronger songs sound more run of the mill than they are. Aside from this major flaw,
Seance keeps at the understated guitar groove that
the Church rapidly made their own, containing marvelous songs like "Disappear?" and the nicely paced "Electric Lash." Experimenting with keyboards provides some nice results, as the
Kilbey-and-synth introduction to the lovely "It's No Reason" shows. Meanwhile, the interplay between
Willson-Piper, Koppes, and
Kilbey on their respective instruments remains strong, with many noted strong points: the dramatic, tense build of "Travel by Thought," the low-key combination on "Electric" bursting into keyboard-touched life on its choruses, and the quick, punchy "Dropping Names." [The 2010 reissue of the album adds liner notes by
Marty Willson-Piper and two single B-sides as bonus tracks: "Someone Special" and "Autumn Soon."] ~ Ned Raggett