Any fans around these parts? I dig Starfish and the first two albums. Their 1984 release has some good tracks, but the name escapes me and I don't have the patience for AMG at the moment. Hologram of Baal is currently getting a test drive thanks to some free EMusic downloads. It's decent. I thought Forget Yourself was pretty bad.

Only know the obvious song

I used to have the album that had the song "(under) the milky way".

Used to love it. The singer's voice was so damn sexy. Very mysterious.

I've liked 'em since I first heard "The Unguarded Moment" sometime in the very early '80s. IMO Starfish is their best album, but I also give a big thumbs up to The Blurred Crusade, Heyday, Remote Luxury, Of Skin And Heart, and Hologram of Baal. If the band has a flaw it's that they prefer mood over melody - but, depending on my own mood, I might also consider that to be their greatest strength.

They're a great live band, too. The guitar interplay between Koppes and Wilson-Piper is something you gotta see to believe. I saw them recently (touring Hologram of Baal), and they hadn't lost a step. If anyone gets a chance to catch 'em, I heartily recommend it.

One of my favorites for many, many years.

Favorite albums are Starfish, Gold Afternoon Fix and Priest=Aura, though earlier albums are very strong.

Tremendous lyrics, perpetually-shimmering and classy ambient-pop. Love this band.

Yeah, one of my favorites. I've found something to appreciate in all their albums. Currently own Of Skin and Heart, Heyday, Starfish, Gold Afternoon Fix, Priest=Aura, Sometime Anywhere, After Everything Now This, Forget Yourself

I love 'em, own every album. Somewhere between Starfish and more recently, they changed. They became more patient, and perhaps just a little bit psychedelic. I agree with the 'mood' comment, but Kilbey doesn't forsake strong songwriting, but I agree that they're probably approaching from the atmosphere direction.

He has some very literate references in his lyrics.

Saw Kilbey and Willson-Piper doing acoustic renditions of Church tracks several years back (late 90's?, early 2000's?) on House Of Blues on television, and OMG did they ever rawk. I forget which one, but he was playing that thing like an electric, and pulling the sustain off, a real player.

One of these days, I'm going to cover "Reptile".

Great take Radcliffe and they were really good live, I couldn’t agree more. I saw them around five times with the most memorable being the time they opened for Echo and the Bunnymen, a phenomenal double bill. I’m looking over my ticket stubs and this was my summer of 1990: Peter Murphy in May, David Bowie in May, the Church in July, four days later Happy Mondays (changed everything), and with what I thought would be the climax, Depeche Mode at Dodger Stadium in August. Sonic Youth was on it’s Goo tour so we decided to go because PJ Harvey was also on the bill and it was in late August. Well there was this unknown band opening the show called Nirvana and we were at the Hollywood Palladium in time to see them. As you could imagine they were insane with Kurt spending most of the time going crazy on the floor of the stage. They destroyed their equipment by the end and everyone kind of knew they witness something special. I bought Nevermind the day it came out. To fast forward to the end of the year and close it out, Cocteau Twins with the one and only time I saw them live.

The Church were a great band and I don’t think you could go wrong with any of their 80’s records; Of Skins and Hearts, the Blurred Crusade, Séance, Remote Luxury, Heyday (favorite), and Starfish. Gold Afternoon Fix came out in 1990 and really didn’t do much for me. Though I bought Priest = Aura a couple of years later, and was an improvement, I was into different kinds of music by than and had lost interest in the band. I wish I had my record player with me so I could dig out these records and see if they sound dated. I played last years album twice, so it did nothing for me, and no one said to check it out so I lost track of it.

BTW, “Milky Way” was on Starfish. It was probably Willson-Piper who was going off Dusty as that was more his style.

"Starfish" is one of my all-time favorite rainy day records, & one of the few I've owned on cassette, vinyl, & CD.

Marty Wilson-Piper is second only to Johnny Marr for creating shimmering, atmospheric guitar parts. Many times his parts ARE the songs' hook.

In my first-ever band, I created a guitar part intentionally to sound like The Church -- chiming guitar hook created with a Rickenbacker 6-string, soaked in reverb, with a touch of tremelo. I'll have to dig that up. The song was pretty crappy, but the guitar part was sweet.

I need to buy more stuff from The Church.

Best friend is a BIG fan. Saw them on the Hologram tour and enjoyed thoroughly.

Yup, song rules. I find "Of Skins And Heart" to be their best, followed by "Remote Luxury".

Check out "Box Of Birds", their covers album--they picked some great songs by Hawkwind, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Ultravox, Iggy Pop, Television, Mott et al. Highly recommended.

Love the Church - don' thave all that many albums but the ones I do are great -

Priest = Aura
Starfish
Gold Afternoon Fix

Billz, I've been meaing to ask, who is your avatar?

It's not Theisman.

hell yes. i came across an old casette of this a few months ago and it hasn't left the boombox next to my shower. been meaning to delve into their later work..

"Reptile" is one of the 10 best songs of the '80s.

Speaking of, I found a live set by The Church while I was checking out the Arcade Fire from KCRW.

http://www.bradleysalmanac.com/songs/mp3oftheweek.htm

Muchas gracias.