Secret corners (The Church) (LP 4253 - 4255)

The Church  Of Skins and Heart  (Vinyl, Stunn Records, 1981) ****  

The Church  The Blurred Crusade  (Vinyl, Stunn Records, 1982) *****  

The Church  Starfish (Vinyl, Mushroom Records, 1988) *****  

Genre: Pop 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Tear it All Away (Of Skins and Heart), Under the Milky Way Tonight (Starfish)

Gear costume: She Never Said, The Unguarded Moment (Of Skins and Heart), Almost With You (The Blurred Crusade)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7

Active compensatory factors: The video for The Unguarded Moment alerted me to the pop smarts of The Church - a paisley coloured dream pop band from across the ditch - Sydney to be specific. That led to me buying their debut single and then the album - Of Skins and Heart (a.k.a. The Church).

The band in these early days was Steve Kilbey (vocals, bass), guitarist Peter Koppes, drummer Nick Ward, and Marty Willson-Piper (a guitarist originally from Liverpool). Nick was quickly replaced by Richard Ploog before the debut was released - hence Richard's face on the back cover, rather than Nicks'.

The debut album as released in NZ on Stunn Records is a weird combo of American cover (as above) and Aussie title on the label. Everything about the debut appealed to me - Steve's vocals, the Byrdsian guitars, the catchy Beatlesque songs and the slightly surrealistic/ psychedelic lyrics. 

I had previously bought She Never Said (the debut single) and the E.P.s. I loved the fact that I recognised this band early on and was prepared to keep buying their stuff.

The Blurred Crusade is a superb follow up to the debut album. It marries the dream pop approach to a more psychedelic sound. Again, the songs are catchy but deeper in their appeal. This album has all the band's strengths ratcheted to the next level with both Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes' guitars to the fore.

Their fourth album Starfish is my final Church album. It was their big breakthrough album internationally, led by the Under the Milky Way single. It was a commercial and artistic breakthrough - the crisp production really suits the songs and Richard's drums are epic!

Where do they all belong? I owned Seance and Heyday but they went in a sell off (can't remember why now). I think I figured I had the best three albums by The Church.