THE BLURRED CRUSADE

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.