Originally from Sydney, The Church is an Australian rock band known for their psychedelic-esque music style. Inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2010, their career started in 1980.

The first idea for the band’s name was “The Church of Man” but was shortened to be simply “The Church”. In the same year, 1980, they released their debut album Of Skins and Heart. The album received gold certification and the single “The Unguarded Moment” peaked at #22 on the Australian Kent Music Report. The album itself did not chart but was still considered a commercial success.

Two years later, The Blurred Crusade (1982) was released as what was described as “a smoother, fuller release”. The album charted, peaking at #10 and the single “Almost With You” hit #21. The band did an international tour, including to parts of Europe, including to Scandinavia, where the album also received critical acclaim.

Seance (1983) was next. Performing worse on the charts than the previous album, only peaking at #18, it still managed to be a success both critically and commercially. It was described as a release which “explored the band’s darker side […] [with tracks] awash with strings and other effects”.

Remote Luxury and Persia were released in 1984 precedenting their third album, Heyday (1985). Three years went by before they released their next studio album, Starfish (1988). Starfish featured “Under the Milky Way”, their best performing single. It received an ARIA award in 1989 and in 2008, readers of The Australian, a newspaper, voted it as the best Australian song of the last 20 years.

Gold Afternoon Fix attempted to capitalise off its predecessor’s success but failed to enjoy the same accomplishments. It did, however, peak at #12 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Two years later, Priest=Aura was released but was poorly received in comparison with their former acclaims.

Sometime Anywhere (1994) was received a lot better than Priest. Their next album however, Magician Among the Spirits (1996) was not so lucky. It received mixed reviews and because of financial issues, the United States distributor went bankrupt. They were not payed by some organisations, leaving the band in a sour spot.

There’s no immediate future for The Church. Our management, the whole thing is broken down. We don’t really have a label. We’re owed lots and lots of money and we’re broke. We’re trying to pursue lawyers to get our money back. Marty and I aren’t having any communication. There’s no one really managing us so that could have been the last record.

Two years later, having worked some things out, they released Hologram of Baal (1998) which was followed a year later by A Box of Birds.

After the turn of the century, The Church continued producing music. After Everything Now This was released in 2002 and acted as the band’s biggest international commercial success in ten years. Forget Yourself came next, but what followed was a phenomenal hit. Uninvited, Like the Clouds (2006) saw fantastic reviews, such as the one from the Sydney Morning Herald, written by Bernard Zuel: “[The album] is a summation of 26 years, drawing from all of the elements with sure rather than desperate hands.”

Their next commercial album was 2009’s Untitled #23. Further/Deeper (2004) followed with a “career-defining set on one of the prestigious PrimaVera festival’s main stages”.

Their most recent album was Man Woman Life Death Infinity and was released in 2017.

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