The Church "Hologram of Baal" (1998)

Hologram of Baal

release date: Sep. 8, 1998

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]

producer: The Church

label: Cooking Vinyl - nationality: Australia

*Track highlights: 1. "Anaesthesia" - 2. "Ricochet" - 3. "Louisiana" (official video, short version) - 4. "The Great Machine" - 5. "No Certainty Attached" - 6. "Tranquility" - 7. "Buffalo" - 8. "This Is It" - 9. "Another Earth" - 10. "Glow-Worm"

*[all tracks]

10th studio album by The Church, which here consists of Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Marty Willson-Piper, and Tim Powles. The album follows the critically acclaimed Magician Among the Spirits from 1996. Koppes had left the band back in '92 after the release of Priest = Aura due to disagreements with Kilbey and Willson-Piper, and the band continued until '97 when the trio of Kilbey, Koppes, and Powles released Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos With Echo Units as The Refo:mation founded without Willson-Piper. Subsequently, Kilbey decided that The Church should release just one more album before finally disbanding. The Church therefore embarked on a farewell tour in Australia, which was surprisingly quite successful, and the last grand finale in Sydney convinced all members to give it another shot in the studio. For the first time, they found themselves in full control of the production assisted by the band's new drummer Tim Powles, and with him at the helm as sound engineer and mixer, they managed to combine the band's original strengths with a new distinctive set of traits. Powles is also mentioned in several places as the person who managed to shelve old internal tensions between Kilbey, Koppes, and Willson-Piper and make them all look ahead. The album was released in Australia on the label Festival Records, in Europe on Cooking Vinyl, and for the North American market by Thirsty Ear and True North. After the release, the band went on their first world tour for many years, which led the group to New York, where Kilbey was arrested and sentenced to community service for buying heroin.

The album garnered generally positive reviews and is one of the band's most coherent and better albums, which clearly wins for a special feeling for a whole cast rather than individual strong compositions. There are no fillers and the 'featured highlights' above are all ten tracks.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

org. Australian cover

The Refo:mation "Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos..." (1997)

Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos... [debut]

release date: 1997

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: The Refo:mation

label: Phantom Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 2. "Don't Move" - 5. "All See It Now" - 10. "Get Over It" - 11. "Take Your Place" - 14. "Stop"

1st and only album by The Refo:mation, whose full title is Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos With Echo Units may almost be considered a studio album by The Church, but there is a particular reason why the album isn't credited the better known band. After the critically acclaimed but financially disastrous Magician Among the Spirits (Aug. 1996) both Steve Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper were preoccupied by their own solo careers as well as collaborative projects, and they remained physically separated as both Kilbey, Peter Koppes, and Tim Powles were in Australia, while Willson-Piper was living in Sweden busy saving recordings for the fifth album by All About Eve, which in '97 was released under the title of Seeing Stars, but he was also writing songs for several artists in '96 and therefore couldn't find time for Australia nor The Church, so Kilbey, Koppes, and Powles decided to release these new tracks under the project name The Refo:mation.

Stylistically, the band has moved more into an electrified rock universe, as a counterpart to the more experimental '96 album. Powles' technical skills as a sound engineer and mixer may be heard in the production, which gives contributes with a more dynamic expression. The album points in many directions, but there is still a balance, and although the album doesn't fall directly into the back catalog of The Church, there is no doubt that the group has found new paths with this album, which later will be heard on the albums Hologram of Baal (1998) and After Everything Now This (2002) by The Church.

The Church "Magician Among the Spirits" (1996)

Magician Among the Spirits

release date: Aug. 19, 1996

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: The Church & Simon Polinski

label: Deep Karma / White - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Welcome" - 2. "Comedown" - 5. "Ladyboy" - 7. "The Further Adventures of the Time Being" - 9. "Magician Among the Spirits" - 10. "Afterimage"

9th studio album by The Church released on the band's own newly formed label Deep Karma with help from Mushroom Records and sub-label White for the Australian market only. The album was released through other distributors for international and US releases and was re-released in '99 in an expanded and re-arranged edition.

Following Sometime Anywhere (May 1994) The Church were left without a record deal, but Kilbey and Wilson-Piper were still keen to continue, and together with Tim Powles, who took part in the '94 album, the three constitute the band here. Peter Koppes appears on some tracks as 'special guest star'.

On the album, the group continues the musical journey into the more experimental alt. rock they started with Priest = Aura (Mar. 1992) with a clear neo-psychedelic touch with inspiration from German krautrock and British gothic rock but also with some distance to the '94 album and it's tighter production and rhythm programming. The title is with reference to the magician, Harry Houdini - also featuring on the front cover - Houdini is also mentioned among many other famous people on the track "Welcome" and again on "The Further Adventures of the Time Being" - a track with reference to "The Time Being" from the double CD edition of the '94 album. The themes are typical Kilbey-universe, the metaphysical and the spiritual, and the compositions are once again relatively long - varying from four to fourteen minutes, but typically more than five minutes long and thus far from radio-friendly sizes.

With this, The Church cements the transition from mainstream pop / rock to the alternative arena and at the same time it's also a testimony that the group composes and makes music for their own interests rather than commercial reward. The album was (as usual) met by positive reviews, but unfortunately spawned new financial difficulties as the band had set up their own label in order to release the album at all, however, collaboration deals with US distributors going bankrupt meant no profit from all sales in North America, and the band soon found itself more than ever on the brink of a disbandment.

The album appears as one of the group's artistic highlights and follows closely in the wake of the fine '92 album - nice to know of.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Sometime Anywhere" (1994)

Sometime Anywhere

release date: May 31, 1994

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,44]

producer: The Church & (Andy) Dare Mason

label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Day of the Dead" - 2. "Lost My Touch" - 3. "Loveblind" - 4. "My Little Problem" - 5. "The Maven" - 9. "Two Places at Once" - 10. "Business Woman"

8th studio album by The Church released two years after the significant change in style with Priest = Aura (Mar. 1992) may have been released under the moniker of The Church, but a lot has changed since the rock-solid quartet of Kilbey, Koppes, Wilson-Piper, and Ploog released the international breakthrough album Starfish in 1988. The record company was in control when shaping the sound on Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. 1990), and with the daring '92 album, you saw the first cracks in a quartet that had only been on a rise since the beginning of the 80s. The drummer was replaced, and then guitarist Peter Koppes left after the 1990 album - and for a time he formed the band The Well together with Richard Ploog, among others, and both Kilbey and Wilson-Piper were busy on their own music projects. Wilson-Piper played in the band All About Eve and Kilbey had started the collaboration Jack Frost with Grant McLennan from the Go-Betweens, so that The Church still existed really could be seen as the last convulsions. Arista still stood behind Kilbey and Wilson-Piper, even though the band was in some sort of disbandment. When it turned out that neither new drummer Daugherty wanted to continue, Kilbey and Wilson-Piper met alone and took advantage of having more freedom to shape the music they wanted. In this way, Sometime Anywhere is the result of a new perspective on music created with bold use of drum machine and synths, although there is also room for traditional drums - here played by Tim Powles, who later ended up as a permanent member of the new formation of The Church and he who also features on the second Jack Frost album Snow Job (1995).

Although the album is largely created through improvs and experimentation in the studio, it appears tighter and on the one hand as more closely connected to the band's previous albums than as a direct continuation of the looser Priest = Aura - and on the other hand, it appears as a mix of the band's previous characteristics and by doing so actually addresses the '92 album - or: somewhere in between. Sometime Anywhere has a duration of approx. 77 min. - something close to the absolute maximum for CD releases, and most tracks have a playing length that challenge the traditional three minutes in popular music. Also, there is no focus on single hits, and only one single was chosen for single release: the song "Two Places at Once", which has not charted on any singles charts. Despite positive reviews, the album didn't perform well, and it became the band's final with Arista, who by then no longer saw potential in the band's music.

Unlike the band's previous album, I actually acquired the album when it came out. After a single listen, I thought the band was once again embarking on an exciting development. Afterwards, I didn't listen to it that much - I found it a bit unstructured, but still with a certain originality, although, I could also found it had the touch of a special production, not far removed from U2's Achtung Baby (1991).

In retrospect, the album hasn't aged as one of the band's best, but it's part of the new improvisational approach Kilbey established in the early 90s and which he has since continued in the many musical projects he has been involved in.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Q Magazine 3 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Priest = Aura" (1992)

Priest = Aura
release date: Mar. 10, 1992
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: The Church & Gavin MacKillop
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Aura" - 2. "Ripple" - 3. "Paradox" - 4. "Lustre" - 5. "Swan Lake" - 6. "Feel" - 8. "Kings" - 11. "The Disillusionist" - 13. "Chaos" - 14. "Film"

7th studio album by The Church following two years after Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. 1990) and after some time spent rethinking the band's musical direction is a reasonably long affair with fourteen tracks and a total running length of 65 minutes. Drummer Richard Ploog had left the band after the 1990 album and Jay Dee Daugherty, of the Patti Smith Group, had been a substitute on the subsequent tour, and he has now officially become a member of a band who faced another problem as the band's guitarist, Peter Koppes decided to leave The Church just as the album had been finished. However, Koppes agreed to stick around long enough for the end of the band's subsequent tour. Apparently, Koppes had long felt redundant in the creative process, with Steve Kilbey and Marty Wilson-Piper mostly taking control of all relevant decisions.

With the album, we are talking about a decidedly stylistic U-turn, a significant denial of the mainstream appeal the group previously felt pushed into and that's something which clearly separates this one from all of the band's most recent three albums. In relation to the longer-lasting musical quartet called The Church, this album actually marks the end to just that.

With clear neo-psychedelic and experimental tendencies with ambient elements, the release was met with lukewarm reviews and a commercial success that was the appropriate echo. Over time, however, the album has gained a completely different status as something of a game-changer and nothing less than a significant cornerstone in the band's entire discography.

Admittedly, I also dismissed the album myself at the time, just as the majority of critics did in the immediate aftermath of its release, but over the past decades I've bowed in the dust and finally realized the qualities it truly contains. Despite being formed in a time when the band's primary songwriter, Steve Kilbey, found solace in heroin, at a time when he and Marty Wilson-Piper's compositions were heavily inspired by free association and studio improvs - something that must also be seen in contrast to the label's earlier interference in the musical process - in that light, the album actually sounds much of a unified whole, containing many fine compositions. The song "Chaos" (with a length of more than 9 mins.) - reportedly with reference to Kilbey's life situation at the time - may be seen as an example of the new initiatives in relation to songwriting.

Imho, this album is no less than the band's best since the compilation Remote Luxury (1984) - and since Seance (Jun. 1983) when speaking pure studio albums.

Fine recommendation.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone Album Guide 4 / 5, Entertainment Weekly 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 2 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Gold Afternoon Fix" (1990)

from top to bottom:
Koppes, Kilbey, Ploog, Piper

Gold Afternoon Fix
release date: Feb. 22, 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: Waddy Wachtel & The Church
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Pharoah" - 2. "Metropolis" - 3. "Terra Nova Cain" - 4. "City" - 5. "Monday Morning" - 6. "Russian Autumn Heart" - 9. "Disappointment" - 10. "Transient" - 11. "Laughing"

6th studio album by The Church released almost two years after the international breakthrough album Starfish (Apr. '88) and the band's second album on Arista. With the same producer, the company has made attempts to ensure that The Church would follow roughly the same approach and repeat the success, although, the band reportedly had expressed a desire to work with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones to avoid similar negative experiences as adjacent during the recordings for the '88 album. Needless say, record companies are in a position of immense power and controlling recording settings. Internal conflicts led to the band's exclusion of drummer Richard Ploog after the album's release (apparently due to uncontrollable substance abuse) - some tracks were recorded with drum programming; yet Ploog is credited as the drummer.

Having followed the band from the beginning, this was my first real disappointment with their new music. My understanding was that the band had made a clear decision to make music with a wider appeal with their previous album, but upon hearing them try to repeat the success of music that was so close to the same output, didn't make things much better. With this, I gradually tired of the music by The Church, although, I still saw them as having unfulfilled potential - and the album is certainly not without fine moments, and the knowledge of their previous releases also made me continue to listen to the band, even though most often it was their older albums. With producer Wachtel at the helm here, you see the band playing large-scale tracks with heavy arrangements obviously adapted to satisfy the American market - it provides me with the image of being a driver of a mobile home on an American highway. It's no longer a question of being original or innovating - but what's left is the task of forging while the iron is still hot.

Gold Afternoon Fix was met by positive reviews, but it didn't quite reach the expected sales figures. The album peaked at No. #66 on the US Billboard 200 and at No. #12 in Australia, which isn't bad after all. The problem was that the band had seen better chart positions and that they were left with a negative experience with studio recordings and by being residents in Los Angeles. Richard Ploog left the group after this album and he was replaced for the upcoming live tour by Jay Dee Daugherty (of Patti Smith).

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Marty Willson-Piper "Rhyme" (1989)

Rhyme

release date: 1989

format: vinyl / digital

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,04]

producer: Marty Willson-Piper & Andy Mason

label: Borderline / Vogue - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 3. "Questions Without Answers" - 5. "Idiots" - 6. "Forever" - 10. "Melancholy God" - 12. "Cascade"

3rd solo album by The Church guitarist Marty Willson-Piper and, like the predecessor, the album was made in close collaboration with Andy Mason, who in addition to the role as co-producer, handles various instruments and functions as co-composer on one track. The individual songs here have been attributed a note indicating where the song was written while The Church was on world tour with Starfish.

Stylistically, there is not much development from Art Attack (1988) - however, this one is not primarily acoustic. Girlfriend Ann Carlberger also appears on two songs and is co-composer on "Idiots", and several Swedish musicians participate on the album, which was recorded in Stockholm.

The album was the first solo effort I came across by Willson-Piper, and I actually purchased the vinyl version sometime shortly after its release, but was never super excited about it. Musically, it doesn't fall far from the jangle pop that characterises the early releases by The Church, but as with Art Attack it doesn't appear particularly original, although it might not aim at that, but there is no real renewal either, and it's a difficult task to spot significant compositions, which at the same time have a clear imprint of the great folk and rock icons of the '60s.

Not recommended.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

Marty Willson-Piper "Art Attack" (1988)

Art Attack

release date: 1988

format: cd

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]

producer: Marty Willson-Piper & Andy Mason

label: Rykodisc - nationality: England, UK

Track highlights: 1. "O' Stockholm" - 2. "Water" - 3. "She's King" - 5. "You Whisper" - 8. "On the Tip of My Tongue"

2nd solo album by Marty Willson-Piper (guitarist in The Church) released on Rykodisc in Australia / New Zealand, in North America, and on the sub-label Ryko Analogue for cassette and vinyl editions. The original CD edition contains six bonus tracks, which are selected songs from Willson-Piper's 1987 debut album, In Reflection, and thus the CD has a running time of more than 73 minutes and comes with 19 tracks. By the way, Andy Mason participated on the '87 album as technician, bassist, and arranger. All tracks here are credited Willson-Piper - however "Water" was co-written with Swedish Ann Carlberger of the band Pink Champagne with whom he paired up and married. Incidentally, The Church's lead vocalist Steve Kilbey formed a pair during this period with Swedish Karin Jansson, also from Pink Champagne. Carlberger and Jansson traveled to Australia together after their band broke up in the mid-80s, and they there met the two members of The Church. Jansson got twins with Kilbey, and Carlberger had a daughter with Willson-Piper. Like Kilbey, Willson-Piper originates from England but around 1980 moved to Australia.

The music isn't far from the jangle-pop style from the releases with The Church, but is mostly only acoustic here, and Willson-Piper plays most of the instruments himself with vocal assistance from Carlberger on two songs and various instruments played by producer Andy Mason.

It's generally fine music - it just doesn't appear particularly strong as an independent work when considering the back catalogue of The Church. The music here mainly focuses on harmonies and the compositions appear a little simpler with small variations reminding us of Bob Dylan and George Harrison.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Starfish" (1988)

Starfish
release date: Feb. 16, 1988
format: vinyl / 2 cd (2005 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Greg Ladanyi, Waddy Wachtel & The Church
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Destination" - 2. "Under the Milky Way" - 4. "Lost" - 6. "Spark" - 8. "Reptile"

5th studio album by The Church following a little more than two years after Heyday (Nov. '85) and released on Mushroom in Australia and Arista Records for international releases. Apparently, "Starfish" was Kilbey's nickname for Donette Thayer [guitarist in the band Game Theory, 1986-89], with whom he partly formed the music project Hex in '88 and also paired with - while at the same time still pairing with Karin Jansson.

According to Steve Kilbey the recordings for the album were a rather negative experience, where the band had wanted to make an album that sounded more like live recordings - approaching something immediate and present, but Kilbey, who was the only granted access to the producer's room, was informed that they only did what they were hired to do, and instead, the group was left with an album sounding very different from what they had wanted. At yes, the sound is far from live atmosphere and instead it's been created with grandiose and a voluminous sound. Still, the reception of the album was positive among critics and it sold quite well. Starfish landed at number #11 on the Australian charts and entered top 50 at number #41 in the US where it's still seen as the band's commercial breakthrough.

"Under the Milky Way", written by Kilbey and girlfriend Karin Jansson, was released as the first single and quickly became an international hit peaking at No. #2 on the US mainstream singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100. The track earned the band the "Single of the Year" award with the Australian ARIA Music Awards in 1989, and in 2008 the song was voted Best Australian Song of the past twenty years by readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine. "Reptile" followed as the second single and did less well, and the final single from the album "Destination" simply failed to chart, but the album is the only from The Church to achieve Gold status (selling more than 500,000 copies) in USA. Despite the success which followed the album release, Kilbey has criticized it for being lifeless and sterile.

In 2005, the album was released in a remastered version as a 2-disc Deluxe Edition on EMI Music Australia with a bonus CD containing twelve tracks, seven of which are bonus material (released in 1991 on the compilation A Quick Smoke at Spot's: Archives 1986-1990), three are acoustic versions of tracks from the original album, and the last two tracks were previously released as B-side material on the Australian 12'' single Under the Milky Way.

The front cover shows the four band members, top left: Richard Ploog, Steve Kilbey, Marty Wilson-Piper, and Peter Koppes.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Under the Milky Way" (1988) (single)

Under the Milky Way, 12'' single
release date: Jan. 1988
format: vinyl (609 778)
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Greg Ladanyi, Waddy Wachtel, The Church; Steve Kilbey, The Church
label: Arista - nationality: Australia

Content: A) "Under the Milky Way" (live '88 - live 2013) - - B) "Musk"

Single release from forthcoming studio release Starfish (Feb. '88). The Australian issue is released by the end of '87 on Mushroom (sublabel of Warner Music Australia). The title track is probably the band's most wellknown hit, and it's written and composed by lead vocalist Steve Kilbey together with his girlfriend Karin Jansson.

The Church "Heyday" (1985)

Heyday
release date: Nov. 1985
format: vinyl / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Peter Walsh
label: EMI - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Myrrh" - 2. "Tristesse" - 3. "Already Yesterday" (video) - 4. "Columbus" (video) - 8. "Disenchanted"

4th studio album by The Church follows nearly 2½ years after Seance (Jun. 1983) and it's the band's first under contract with Warner Bros. The album was released by EMI in Europe and Australasia.

For the first time, the front cover reveals the four members of the band on an album cover [top left corner shows Marty Wilson-Piper, Steve Kilbey, Richard Ploog and Peter Koppes].

I've always had mixed feelings about this album. I had already followed the band for some years and really enjoyed their original sound and style but with this I think some of their uniqueness vanished as they - with aid from a new record label management - apparently aimed for a broader audience.

The album is fine, more so so, without obvious great tracks.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Remote Luxury" (1984)

vinyludgave,
Carrere

Remote Luxury (compilation)
release date: 1984
format: vinyl (CAL 213) / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: The Church; John Bee
label: Carrere Records - nationality: Australia

Tracklist: 1. "Constant in Opal" - 2. "Violet Town" - 3. "No Explanation" (4 / 5) - 4. "10,000 Miles" - 5. "Maybe These Boys" - 6. "Into My Hands" (4 / 5) - 7. "A Month of Sundays" - 8. "Volumes" - 9. "Shadow Cabinet" - 10. "Remote Luxury" (4 / 5)

A compilation by The Church, which probably has to be seen in light of the fact that the band only just signed with Warner Bros., who decided to promote the band by releasing a compilation from the two 5-track EPs Remote Luxury (1984) and Persia (1984). Rather than choosing a release where the tracks from both EPs were in continuation of each other, the company chose to mix the albums. Somehow, at the same time, the band's former company, Carrere, managed to make an agreement to release the album under their own name in Europe.

The Remote Luxury Ep released in Feb. '84 (Content: 1. "Maybe These Boys" - 2. "10,000 Miles" - 3. "Into My Hands" - 4. "A Month of Sundays" - 5. "Remote Luxury "), and the Persia EP released Aug. '84 (content: 1. "Constant in Opal" - 2. "Volumes" - 3. "No Explanation" - 4. "Violet Town" - 5. "Shadow Cabinet" ).

Stylistically, there are few changes since the studio album Seance (1983) with less focus on the progressive and the neo-psychedelic elements but the album is a super fine release from these fantastic Aussies.

Original eps:

Remote Luxury (ep) Feb. 1984		Persia (ep) Aug. 1984

Compilation on Warner:

Remote Luxury

The Church "Seance" (1983)

Seance
release date: Jun. 13, 1983
format: vinyl (821 046-1) / cd (1989)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,15]
producer: The Church; John Bee
label: Carrere Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Fly" (4 / 5) - 2. "One Day" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Electric" (4 / 5) - 4. "It's No Reason" (4,5 / 5) (video) - 5. "Travel by Thought" - 6. "Disappear?" (4 / 5) - 7. "Electric Lash" (4 / 5) (video) - 10. "It Doesn't Change" (5 / 5)

[ 1983 Steve Kilbey interview ]

3rd studio album by The Church following The Blurred Crusade (Feb. 1982) is the band's final studio album on the smaller label Carrere under EMI / Parlophone before the band became associated with Warner Bros.

Once again, the production sound has improved since the last release and here to a new stage with a stronger spatial sensation. At the same time, the band has added a greater touch of the neo-psychedelic (most pronounced on "Travel by Thought") and a progressive touch to their usual jangle pop. It is not really mainstream pop / rock but rather something of an experimental nature despite the preservation of relatively simple compositions.

Forced to choose just one of the band's many great albums, I would go with this one, as it is also one of my absolute favourites from the 80s. The album is a sort of a culmination of their early years - a period in which they kept refining their expression.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]

1989 cd udgave

The Church "The Blurred Crusade" (1982)

The Blurred Crusade
release date: Feb. 22, 1982
format: vinyl (CALS 140) / cd (2010 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,98]
producer: Bob Clearmountain; Chris Gilbey
label: Carrere Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Almost With You" (4 / 5) (live) - 2. "When You Were Mine" - 3. "Fields of Mars" - 6. "Just for You" (4 / 5) (live) - 8. "To Be in Your Eyes" (4 / 5) - 9. "You Took" (org. video)

2nd studio album by The Church - in Europe the album followed only 1 month after the debut.

Stylistically, the band continues the jangle pop from the predecessor, although it's also clear that this second album is a more coherent release. The Blurred Crusade was for many years one of my favourites by this great Australian band, and what I personally find succeeds here, is the addition of larger and more complex arrangements to an original style, which already here points to a new-found neo-psychedelia, a certain trademark of theirs on all following releases. Apart from that, this album is also better produced.

Without ever being mention, this appears in hindsight as something that could easily be a source of inspiration to a style you would come to hear a few years later in bands like Aztec Camera and The Smiths.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

The Church "The Church" (1982)

The Church [debut]
release date: Jan. 22, 1982
format: vinyl (CALS 130) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Chris Gilbey & Bob Clearmountain
label: Carrere Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "For a Moment We're Strangers" (4 / 5) - 3. "The Unguarded Moment" (4,5 / 5) (live) - 6. "Is This Where You Live" - *8. "Tear It All Away" - 9. "Don't Open the Door to Strangers"

Studio album debut by Australian jangle pop band The Church consisting of lead vocalist and bassist Steve Kilbey, lead guitarist Peter Koppes, guitarist Marty Willson-Piper (6 & 12 strings acoustic and el-guitar) and with Nick Ward on drums. On the back of the sleeve Ward has been exchanged in the credit list by new drummer Richard Ploog, who plays on three of the songs but Ward left the band before the album was finished. This is the '82 European version of the debut, which originally had the title Of Skins and Heart (Apr. '81) released by EMI / Parlophone and only for the Australian market. The European issue is almost identical with only one track differing from the Australian edition: track #8. has been exchanged for "Fighter Pilot...Korean War" on the original.

I purchased the vinyl album back in '82, and it was the only version I knew of until around 2012, when I came to know of the original. Upon listening to the "Fighter pilot..." track, I only think the decision of an exchange seems appropriate, when the album had an international release. "Tear It All Away" falls in the better half of the tracks and appears more in harmony with the current jangle pop style compared to the exchanged track.

Musically, this is labelled new wave - a soft end less aggressive version, which corresponds with other bands of the late 70s to early 80s. This isn't music that relates to the punk rock, as other new wave bands, but the style is with reference to and inspiration from folk rock, as soft rock of the 60s and perhaps with some inspiration from British band The Soft Boys, a band who had listened to The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, The Kinks, and The Byrds.

cover from the debut album
Of Skins and Heart, (1981)