Investigating The Church

No, I haven't suddenly found the light and will be spending my Sunday mornings thanking my creator for giving me life. Instead, I've recently been digging into the back catalogue of the Australian band. And I do speak to my creators anyways: my parents usually ring up on Sunday evening to see how I am.

So, the Church. I would imagine I'm like many in that my first exposure was through Donnie Darko using their most well-known song Under The Milky Way. It shimmered in that way I like, but it's only been in the last few months that I've begun to investigate further. There seemed to be a lot to like: their bassist/singer and twin guitar line-up matches the Chameleons, another superb outfit who deserved more success then they got.

Every year I seem to get obsessed with a band: previously it's been XTC, the Comsat Angels and Talk Talk. I'll buy up all the albums, pore over articles to learn the most banal details and buy any books.

With over 20 albums released since 1980, being obsessed with the Church could get expensive, especially as most of those are only available via import (they never made too much of an impact in the UK). It made sense to start with what I knew, so I picked up Starfish - their most popular album in sales terms and featuring the aforementioned Milky Way. As commercial breakthroughs go, it's surprisingly edgy and I wasn't surprised on learning that much of it was recorded 'live' in the studio. Several songs reflect the LA environment they'd been dropped in whilst recording (Destination and North, South, East and West in particular). It's a quite glorious album and one I've had on constant play in the last few months.

Much impressed by the album, I decided to go backwards and picked up the album before: Heyday. Despite a terrible album cover, it's another fine album. It's perhaps more 'produced', what with horns and strings peppering some songs, which themselves have a more psychedelic edge: jangling guitars are much the order of the day. It lags a little in some moments, but numbers such as Already Yesterday, Disenchanted and Tantalised are the equal of anything going on in the UK indie scene at the time.

Finally, last week I received The Blurred Crusade in the post. Their second album (Heyday being the fourth), it shows more a post-punk vibe which I'm led to believe carries over from their debut Of Skins and Heart - from which I only know the fab single The Unguarded Moment.

I've had a week to digest The Blurred Crusade, and I'm impressed. The opening one-two of Almost With You and When You Were Mine is about as good as it can get. There's a confidence of a band hitting their stride, switching between the dreamy soundscapes of Fields of Mars and more rocking numbers like A Fire Burns.

All three albums have provided a welcome escape for me these last few weeks. While bassist/singer Steve Kilbey generally seems to be singing about not much at all (especially on the earlier stuff), it does manage to have the effect of taking your thoughts somewhere else, which sounds vague, but is as good an explanation as I can manage. The guitar team of Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper are also magical, putting together some interplay that matches my all-time favourite guitar team of Reg Smithies and Dave Fielding.

So, my new favourite band and one I plan on investigating much, much more. For all the tedium, wasted time and heartbreak of 2010, the music of this band have provided a much needed escape. I thank them.