Marching Church, the onetime solo project and now bona fide big band formed by singer Elias Bender Rnnenfelt, has followed its leaders muse everywhere from their early days of 4-track lo-fi tapes, to Sam Cooke-tinged soul on This World is Not Enough, to outr free jazz on their most recent Coming Down 12″.

For Telling It Like It Is, Rnnenfelt and his bandmates have foregone much of their past proclivity for wild stylistic swings in favor of thematically unified, complicated, but fundamentally cohesive song arrangements; the studio itself at times acting as an auxiliary band member. The result is the most focused vision of Marching Church yet, but one that has lost none of its swagger, and none of its power to enthrall.We have here one world united under the sparks of one enormous disco ball hanging over us like the moon, Rnnenfelt elaborates. In one fleeting moment in the light of its mirrored surface we see human endurance, in the next we see doom. The light and shade he finds in this worldview permeate the songs on Telling It Like It Is. Rnnenfelt describes the new work an album which raises multiple flags, and the sound of individualism stuck in the center of the modern world, swimming with and against the current.

The band in 2016 comprises Rnnenfelt and his frequent collaborator and Iceage bandmate Johan S. Weith (on electric viola and guitar here), Lowers rhythm section of Kristian Emdal and Anton Rothstein, trumpet player Jakob Emil Lamdahl, and Hand of Dusts Bo Hyer Hansen. Augmenting these sessions are Maaike Van der Linde and Thora Sveinsdottir of the Stargaze Orchestraon flute and strings, and Sonja La Bianca of Choir of Young Believers on saxophone. The obvious chemistry among these players makes this the most cultivated Marching Church album to date, unveiling the full spectrum of capabilities and musical dexterity of each player. Telling It Like It Is taps into a debauched lunacy that teeters equally on the verge of exhaustion, and the charged sensuality rooted in our loins that keep us going.

Tracklisting
1. Let It Come Down
2. Up for Days
3. Heart of Life
4. Inner City Pigeon
5. Lions Den
6. 2016
7. Achilles Heel
8. Information
9. Calenture