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The Church—yeah, the guys who did "Under the Milky Way"— have always been one of my favorite bands: they can deploy a real shiny-pop sensibility, but they can also go spacy. Lots of cool interlocking guitar parts, ranging from Byrds-y jangles to Fripp-style whooshes, cryptic (or nonsensical) lyrics, and, erm, understated vocals.
Their output has been hit-and-miss, for me. The second full LP, The Blurred Crusade, (1982) is where everything really started to gel—a big, sweeping sound, driving but at the same time vaguely melancholy. Then they stumbled for a bit, and the next couple of records were pretty dire: too many synths, too few melodies, bad drum machines.
Then they came back with a strong four-album streak, beginning with Heyday, which worked gorgeous string and horn arrangements into a strong set of songs, from the ferocious single "Tantalized" to the moody opener "Myrrh" and the instrumental "Happy Hunting Ground."
Then came the commercial breakthrough of Starfish, which features "...Milky Way." The best songs, for my money, were "Reptile" (with its chattering delay riff) and "Hotel Womb," which abounds in epic psychedelic imagery:
I said, Why are these people wearing these masks? I said
Can we be reconciled?
She said The Mother of the Storm has to roam the sky
searching for her child...
Next up Gold Afternoon Fix, an even stronger record than Starfish songwise. Highlights: the frantic "Russian Autumn Heart," the tumbling "City," and the sneering closer "Grind," with its ebb-and-flow dynamics.
Priest = Aura shows a few cracks—the band were breaking in a new drummer, and there seemed to be a pull between creating sharp, two-minute cabaret-pop gems or sprawling, formless epics: but the band comes out mostly for the better. Picks to click: "Feel," a mid-tempo throbber that seems to be about reincarnation, and the stately "Kings."
And then things started going south. Founding guitarist Peter Koppes left, then rejoined, and there have been some meandering albums deperately in need of an editor, including a 74-minute instrumental jam called Bastard Universe and an all-covers record (a sure sign of a dying band). There have been a few ace tracks (most notably the mighty "Ladyboy," from Magician Among The Spirits), but I've pretty much given up on the group ever recapturing their focus.
Still, for a decade, they had a damned good run—which is more than many bands can say. |
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