{"id":30836,"date":"2026-03-26T05:30:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T09:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30836"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T15:07:08","slug":"five-classic-cuts-from-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/26\/five-classic-cuts-from-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Classic Cuts from the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Outside of the Church\u2019s native Australia, the band\u2019s albums have charted only once since 1992 (2003\u2019s <em>Forget Yourself<\/em> reached No. 42 on the U.S. Indie Albums chart). But the prolific and endlessly creative band remains a steady concert draw and a critical favorite. The Church\u2019s most recent studio release is 2024\u2019s <em>Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars<\/em>, the band\u2019s 27th album and a sequel to the conceptually-based <em>The Hypnogogue<\/em>, released a year earlier.<\/p>\n<p>The Church\u2019s commercial apex lasted from 1988\u2019s <em>Starfish<\/em> through 1992\u2019s <em>Priest = Aura<\/em>, but leader Steve Kilbey\u2019s impressionistic and evocative lyrics continue to entrance listeners, and the band\u2019s trademark mix of goth, psychedelia and dream-pop has won the Church a dedicated following. The Church\u2019s history on record extends all the way back to 1981\u2019s <em>Of Skins and Heart<\/em>; that album debut performed well on charts in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. But it wouldn&#8217;t be until the release of their fourth album \u2013 1985\u2019s <em>Heyday<\/em> \u2013 that the group landed on U.S. album charts. In celebration of the recent 40-year anniversary of their worldwide breakthrough <em>Heyday<\/em>, here are five must-hear tracks from the Church.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Unguarded Moment\u201d from <em>Of Skins and Heart<\/em> (1981)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe second single from the Church scored the band its first Australian hit, reaching No. 22 in the band\u2019s home country. When <em>Of Skins and Heart<\/em> was released in the U.S., the album was re-titled <em>The Church<\/em>. More upbeat than much of what listeners would subsequently hear from the band, \u201cThe Unguarded Moment\u201d is nonetheless a fan favorite.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Osz-GQbX37o?si=zcQW27RQmbtpVYTd\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMetropolis\u201d from <em>Gold Afternoon Fix<\/em> (1990)<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the commercial success of the band\u2019s 1988 album <em>Starfish<\/em> \u2013 with its hit single \u201cUnder the Milky Way\u201d \u2013 all parties expected the next album to build on that momentum. And while <em>Gold Afternoon Fix<\/em> was a critical success, the band was unhappy with it. So while \u201cMetropolis\u201d would reach the No. 1 spot on <em>Billboard<\/em>\u2019s Modern Rock Tracks chart, Steve Kilbey has often attempted to distance himself from the album.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/96YYp98ye9o?si=_UtGRHCD7_zj3ISR\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cFly Home\u201d from <em>Sometime Anywhere<\/em> (1994)<\/strong><br \/>\nBy the time of session for the Church\u2019s ninth album, only Kilbey and guitarist Marty Willson-Piper remained from the original lineup. The duo worked with drum loops and session players to create the more experimental <em>Sometime Anywhere<\/em>; it\u2019s a long album filled with long tracks. It\u2019s also one of the Church\u2019s most richly textured releases; a highlight of the album is \u201cFly Home,\u201d co-written by the duo and featuring lead vocals from Willson-Piper.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YImmCbsZpAk?si=6ugmW3jWAcMzcGPZ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Porpoise Song\u201d from A Box of Birds (1999)<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Church rarely recorded songs by other artists, but for their 12th album, they pivoted and recorded ten cover songs. The well-received album featured songs by well-known acts (The Beatles, Neil Young) alongside tunes originally by artists relatively unknown in the U.S. A deep album track from the Monkees\u2019 <em>Head<\/em>, \u201cThe Porpoise Song\u201d is a wonderfully atmospheric tune written by Carole King.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2TS6XVzUESo?si=oJ2B1Ubd6ogv3cTk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cNo Other You\u201d from <em>The Hypnogogue<\/em> (2023)<\/strong><br \/>\nSteve Kilbey has always been an evocative lyricist; his songs transport the listener to distant and unfamiliar lands. But until <em>The Hypnogogue<\/em>, the Church had never made a conceptually unified album. The tragic tale of rock star Eros Zeta is at the center of both <em>The Hypnogogue<\/em> and its 2024 sequel. It\u2019s not all gloom and doom, though: \u201cNo Other You\u201d is a fine love song.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vPzaJfykn70?si=Jd8ttPaNkHyyGO-R\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outside of the Church\u2019s native Australia, the band\u2019s albums have charted only once since 1992 (2003\u2019s Forget Yourself reached No. 42 on the U.S. Indie Albums chart). But the prolific [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2146],"class_list":["post-30836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-the-church","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30838,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30836\/revisions\/30838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}