THE CHURCH

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The Church biography
Formed in Canberra, Australia in 1980 - Still active as of 2019

THE CHURCH was formed in 1980 by lyricist/songwriter Steve KILBEY (bass, vocals, keyboards), Peter KOPPES (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Marty WILLSON-PIPER (guitars, vocals) and Nick WARD (drums). Richard PLOOG replaced WARD in 1983, and remained with the band until 1991. After quickly going through a couple more drummers, Tim POWLES took over in 1996 and has remained with the band.

THE CHURCH has gone through a few "periods," the first of which found them channeling their earliest musical influences, including The PRETENDERS and U2 (with both of whom they were contemporaneous), as well as The POLICE and David BOWIE (and a bit of The BEATLES). Once they found their voice (on their breakthrough third album, "S�ance"), they also incorporated "newer" influences, including PINK FLOYD and The MOODY BLUES. THE CHURCH's sound eventually developed into lush, heavily-textured atmospheres surrounding a combination of jangly, often arpeggiated guitar work; tasteful, sometimes "symphonic" keyboard figures; compelling, often syncopated drum and/or percussion rhythms; and occasional appropriate use of non-standard instrumentation (e.g., violin), all supporting KILBEY's unique talk-singing vocals. And although it is often difficult (deliberately?) to make out the lyrics, it is worth the effort, as KILBEY stands comfortably alongside DYLAN and MORRISON as one of rock's great poets.

THE CHURCH had their first radio play in 1985 with "Columbus" (from "Heyday"), but did not gain international attention until 1988 with "Under the Milky Way" (from "Starfish"). Among THE CHURCH's most important works are "S�ance", "Priest=Aura" (their second breakthrough album, and arguably their "Sgt. Pepper"), "Sometime Anywhere" (their "Magical Mystery Tour"?), "Hologram of Baal" and "After Everything Now This", the latter of which proves, 20 years after their debut, that the band remains mature and focused, and shows no signs of flagging in their unrelenting creativity.
- Ian Alterman

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THE CHURCH discography

Ordered by release date | Showing ratings (top albums) | Help Progarchives.com to complete the discography and add albums

THE CHURCH top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.19 \| 24 ratings Of Skins And Heart [Aka: The Church] 1981	3.31 \| 33 ratings The Blurred Crusade 1982	2.75 \| 12 ratings The Church 1982	3.75 \| 28 ratings Seance 1983	3.25 \| 35 ratings Heyday 1985
3.42 \| 53 ratings Starfish 1988	2.94 \| 36 ratings Gold Afternoon Fix 1990	3.98 \| 49 ratings Priest = Aura 1992	3.47 \| 27 ratings Sometime Anywhere 1994	3.68 \| 31 ratings Magician Among The Spirits 1996
3.88 \| 28 ratings Hologram Of Baal 1998	3.32 \| 17 ratings A Box Of Birds 1999	3.30 \| 21 ratings After Everything Now This 2002	3.80 \| 5 ratings Parallel Universe 2002	3.80 \| 33 ratings Forget Yourself 2003
2.65 \| 17 ratings El Momento Descuidado 2004	3.55 \| 23 ratings Uninvited Like The Clouds 2006	3.20 \| 10 ratings El Momento Siguiente 2007	3.14 \| 7 ratings Shriek - Excerpts From The Soundtrack 2009	3.82 \| 21 ratings Untitled #23 2009
3.36 \| 18 ratings Further / Deeper 2014	4.22 \| 9 ratings Man Woman Life Death Infinity 2017	4.00 \| 4 ratings The Hypnogogue 2023

THE CHURCH Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings

Jammed
2004

4.80 | 5 ratings

A Psychedelic Symphony
2014

THE CHURCH Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

4.50 | 2 ratings

A Psychedelic Symphony
2014

THE CHURCH Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

2.67 \| 19 ratings Remote Luxury 1984	3.33 \| 3 ratings Hindsight 1980-1987 1987	2.89 \| 10 ratings A Quick Smoke At Spot's 1991	0.00 \| 0 ratings Under the Milky Way: The Best of The Church 1999	4.00 \| 1 ratings Beside Yourself 2004
2.75 \| 8 ratings Back With Two Beasts 2005	4.00 \| 2 ratings Deep in the Shallows: The Classic Singles Collection 2007

THE CHURCH Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

0.00 \| 0 ratings Too Fast For You 1981	0.00 \| 0 ratings Almost With You 1982	0.00 \| 0 ratings Temperature Drop in Downtown Winterland 1982	0.00 \| 0 ratings Sing-Songs 1983	3.00 \| 2 ratings Persia 1984
4.00 \| 1 ratings Remote Luxury 1984	0.00 \| 0 ratings Under the Milky Way 1988	0.00 \| 0 ratings Russian Autumn Heart 1990	0.00 \| 0 ratings Feel 1992	0.00 \| 0 ratings Comedown 1996
0.00 \| 0 ratings Louisiana 1998	2.67 \| 3 ratings Numbers 2001	0.00 \| 0 ratings Song in Space 2003	3.00 \| 1 ratings Block 2006	3.31 \| 4 ratings Coffee Hounds 2009
4.25 \| 4 ratings Pangaea 2009	0.00 \| 0 ratings Operetta 2009	0.00 \| 0 ratings Deadman's Hand 2010

THE CHURCH Reviews

Showing last 10 reviews only

Forget Yourself by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 2003
3.80 | 33 ratings
BUY

Forget Yourself
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

Eh, I dunno guys - isn't The Church beginning to sound a lot like the Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev at this point? Sure, sure, all three bands in their own way are peers in the neo-psychedelic scene and The Church marked out this territory well before the others did - but on Forget Yourself their sound seems to be increasingly shifting towards riding the bandwagon established by those other groups and their imitators. Whilst growing out of their early jangle pop style was doubtless the right move, and the material here is perfectly competent, I can't help but feel like I'd rather listen to Magician Among the Spirits or The Blurred Crusade again instead of this.

After Everything Now This by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 2002
3.30 | 21 ratings
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After Everything Now This
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

The Church greeted the new millennium with a sound that had largely abandoned the jangle pop of their early era but retained their neo-psychedelic sensibilities, shifting it to a basis rooted in more current indie rock/alternative rock styles of the era. Invisible, the epic album closer, is the sort of thing you get once the Church have listened to Spiritualized for long enough, for instance, and in general the album does a fine job of presenting a sound that's continually being updated whilst at the same time remaining true to a core aesthetic principle. Perhaps not as compelling as Magician Among the Spirits, but few items in their discography are.

A Box Of Birds by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 1999
3.32 | 17 ratings
BUY

A Box Of Birds
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

Sure, it's a covers album, and some will be inclined to mark it down solely on that basis, but I actually think this is damn good. The secret to a good covers album is to select material which either already suits the style of the performers in question, or lends itself to a suitable adaptation. Here, the selections are on point, with a take on the Beatles' It's All Too Much which perhaps also takes note of what Steve Hillage did with the track, an Iggy Pop selection (The Endless Sea) which is far from his most celebrated track but is probably the song most suited to a Church take in his body of work, and other picks which allow the Church to do what they do best. On the whole, a fine example of the form.

Magician Among The Spirits by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 1996
3.68 | 31 ratings
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Magician Among The Spirits
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

Though many would give the accolade to Priest = Aura, which admittedly paved the way for this stylistic experiment, I'd have to say that for me the highlight of the Church's 1990s outputs is the magnificent Magician Among the Spirits, in which obsessions with occult, philosophical, sexual, and narcotic topics merge into an intoxicating aesthetic vision which sees the Church emerging from their jangle pop chrysalis entirely to deliver a neo-psychedelic masterpiece, taking them the furthest from the roots they'd ever gone up to this point and bringing the stylistic experiments of the decade to a wonderful culmination, despite the core band being essentially reduced to a duo by this point.

Sometime Anywhere by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 1994
3.47 | 27 ratings
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Sometime Anywhere
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

Though a shade less compelling than the wonderful Priest = Aura, Somewhere Anywhere by the Church is very much a continuation of that album's sound, blending the jangle pop bedrock of the Church with a dreamy atmosphere that hovers between the neo-psychedelic and dream pop sounds of earlier Church material with then-current shoegaze approaches. If it seems a bit deflated compared to its predecessor, this is likely to be due to the departure of Peter Koppes and Jay Dee Daugherty, and its status as a contractual obligation album for Arista knocked out by the last band members standing - but given the headwinds against them, they do remarkably well all things considered.

Gold Afternoon Fix by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 1990
2.94 | 36 ratings
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Gold Afternoon Fix
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

Doomed to be somewhat overlooked as the album that came between the much better-regarded Starfish and Priest = Aura, Gold Afternoon Fix finds the Church in a slightly more conventional mode than either of those two albums - not completely, but enough to give the sense that they are coasting just a little. At nearly 10 years into their career, they'd seen their jangle pop sound go from being cutting edge to a widely-imitated subgenre, and perhaps that's what makes this album feel a little slight - it doesn't quite have the edge of experimentation which allowed other efforts to stand apart from the sea of imitators.

Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 1984
3.00 | 2 ratings
BUY

Persia
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

Persia is perhaps the more conventional of the two EPs that The Church put out between Seance and Heyday, in that the Remote Luxury EP (which later lent its name to the compilation album that collected the two) was somewhat more eclectic whilst this was squarely within The Church's musical territory. Solid jangle pop stuff, perhaps a little slight compared to their album material, but nonetheless reasonably interesting even if it's a bit forgettable compared to the material on their first few albums (especially Seance or The Blurred Crusade). Inessential, though since the easiest way to get these tracks is on the Remote Luxury compilation, why turn your nose up at it?

Remote Luxury by CHURCH, THE album cover

Singles/EPs/Fan Club/Promo, 1984
4.00 | 1 ratings
BUY

Remote Luxury
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

— First review of this album —

This intriguing release - one of two EPs eventually compiled in the collection also confusingly called Remote Luxury, and which bridge the gap between Seance and Heyday - finds the Church roving a bit further from their jangle pop centre of gravity, undertaking wider-ranging stylistic explorations than they'd allowed themselves on their studio albums up to this point whilst still existing in the same jangle pop/post-punk/new wave/neo-psychedelia demimonde they'd staked out for themselves. Once again, the Church would demonstrate themselves as deft crafters of melancholic arthouse pop in a distinctly 1980s style, and whilst this isn't quite on the level of the albums preceding or succeeding it, it's still worth a listen (by itself or combined with Persia on the compilation release).

The Blurred Crusade by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 1982
3.31 | 33 ratings
BUY

The Blurred Crusade
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

This early peak for The Church sees their pioneering jangle pop style mature, offering a more seamless integration with the gothic, post-punk/new wave, and psychedelic sounds which also influenced them whilst still staking out a musical identity which was at the time distinctive - although many bands would explore this sort of territory in subsequent years, to my ears only the UK's intrepid Felt really compare, particularly when it comes to the wistfully melancholic atmosphere. The original wave of psychedelia didn't do melancholia that much (passing that off to the folk rock crowd for the most part), what with the sunny 1960s optimism that spawned it, but The Blurred Crusade is a fine example of psych-influenced jangle pop from an era much happier to explore being sad.

Of Skins And Heart [Aka: The Church] by CHURCH, THE album cover

Studio Album, 1981
3.19 | 24 ratings
BUY

Of Skins And Heart [Aka: The Church]
The Church Prog Related

Review by Warthur
Prog Reviewer

The merits of the Church's debut album, Of Skins and Heart (issued as simply The Church, with a tweaked track list, in some territories) are perhaps easy to overlook in retrospect. The proliferation of jangle pop groups in the mid-1980s - especially on rhe UK independent scene that so strongly influenced them - means that what was innovative about their sound here sounds ordinary to years used to other bands playing with enchanted Byrds-like jangling guitar and a post-punk indie attitude. It's only when you look at the dates that you realise how extraordinarily ahead of their time they were - this was recorded in 1980 but sounds like it could have come out at the opposite end of the 1980s, revealing the Church as being as crucial to the development of this style as, say, Felt or Orange Juice, and perhaps more so given their greater international success.

Thanks to ProgLucky for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

3.19 \| 24 ratings Of Skins And Heart [Aka: The Church] 1981	3.31 \| 33 ratings The Blurred Crusade 1982	2.75 \| 12 ratings The Church 1982	3.75 \| 28 ratings Seance 1983	3.25 \| 35 ratings Heyday 1985
3.42 \| 53 ratings Starfish 1988	2.94 \| 36 ratings Gold Afternoon Fix 1990	3.98 \| 49 ratings Priest = Aura 1992	3.47 \| 27 ratings Sometime Anywhere 1994	3.68 \| 31 ratings Magician Among The Spirits 1996
3.88 \| 28 ratings Hologram Of Baal 1998	3.32 \| 17 ratings A Box Of Birds 1999	3.30 \| 21 ratings After Everything Now This 2002	3.80 \| 5 ratings Parallel Universe 2002	3.80 \| 33 ratings Forget Yourself 2003
2.65 \| 17 ratings El Momento Descuidado 2004	3.55 \| 23 ratings Uninvited Like The Clouds 2006	3.20 \| 10 ratings El Momento Siguiente 2007	3.14 \| 7 ratings Shriek - Excerpts From The Soundtrack 2009	3.82 \| 21 ratings Untitled #23 2009
3.36 \| 18 ratings Further / Deeper 2014	4.22 \| 9 ratings Man Woman Life Death Infinity 2017	4.00 \| 4 ratings The Hypnogogue 2023

2.67 \| 19 ratings Remote Luxury 1984	3.33 \| 3 ratings Hindsight 1980-1987 1987	2.89 \| 10 ratings A Quick Smoke At Spot's 1991	0.00 \| 0 ratings Under the Milky Way: The Best of The Church 1999	4.00 \| 1 ratings Beside Yourself 2004
2.75 \| 8 ratings Back With Two Beasts 2005	4.00 \| 2 ratings Deep in the Shallows: The Classic Singles Collection 2007

0.00 \| 0 ratings Too Fast For You 1981	0.00 \| 0 ratings Almost With You 1982	0.00 \| 0 ratings Temperature Drop in Downtown Winterland 1982	0.00 \| 0 ratings Sing-Songs 1983	3.00 \| 2 ratings Persia 1984
4.00 \| 1 ratings Remote Luxury 1984	0.00 \| 0 ratings Under the Milky Way 1988	0.00 \| 0 ratings Russian Autumn Heart 1990	0.00 \| 0 ratings Feel 1992	0.00 \| 0 ratings Comedown 1996
0.00 \| 0 ratings Louisiana 1998	2.67 \| 3 ratings Numbers 2001	0.00 \| 0 ratings Song in Space 2003	3.00 \| 1 ratings Block 2006	3.31 \| 4 ratings Coffee Hounds 2009
4.25 \| 4 ratings Pangaea 2009	0.00 \| 0 ratings Operetta 2009	0.00 \| 0 ratings Deadman's Hand 2010