* Rolling Stone…

[Eric] Church has never paid much mind to fulfilling expectations, and instead of shying away from the gospel sounds he debuted at Stagecoach, he brought the choir with him into the studio and doubled down with orchestral strings and horns. The result is Evangeline vs. the Machine, a record that is both dazzling and challenging, and creates a listening experience that upends the idea of what country music is — or at least the type of country music that first made Church a Nashville star.

It is also a masterwork. Evangeline vs. the Machine is just eight tracks, noticeably brief compared with its predecessor, 2021’s trio of LPs, Heart & Soul, but it cements Church’s legacy as a try-anything artist, one with more in common with David Bowie or Bob Dylan than his peers. It’s impossible to think of another mainstream country singer daring enough to emphasize French horn over electric guitar on a major-label album.

But the instrument is everywhere on EVTM, showing up on six of the songs. It announces “Evangeline” in a way similar to how the Rolling Stones relied on French horn in “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” “Still the man that I was/Just a little more gray, a little more stay/A little less sting in my buzz,” Church sings in the ballad, a rumination on getting older and finding solace in music.

* Evangeline…

* Keep it Illinois-centric, please. Thanks much.