Ranking The Church: from Of Skins & Heart to Untitled #23 with author Robert Dean Lurie

Today marks the 11th edition of a special series within my weekly feature, Friday on the Turntable. Instead of looking at one album, I am featuring all of the studio albums from the Australian band - The Church - and ranking them. It was a mammoth task, and proved frustrating when putting albums that I love against other ones that I love. Nonetheless, I've provided a ranked list - from #15 (good) - #1 (the best). I invited my friend - and author of No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and The Church - Robert Dean Lurie, to share his own list.

If you would like the short / textual version of the list, please scroll past the video. As always, I look forward to reading your comments and feedback. At the very bottom of this article is a link to a playlist of The Church that I created in Spotify, which features my 3 favorite songs from each album - along with a couple other songs that I wanted you to hear. :)

Also check out The 15 Best Songs of The Church feature - here

The text/pics version is below - don't scroll down yet if you want to enjoy the video.

#15: Forget Yourself (2003)

Songs: Maya, June, Sealine

#14: Magician Among The Spirits (1996)

Songs: Comedown, Ladyboy, Afterimage

#13: Sometime Anywhere (1994)

Songs: My Little Problem, Business Woman, Lullaby

#12: Uninvited, Like The Clouds (2006)

Songs: Unified Field, Easy, Untoward

#11: After Everything Now This (2002)

Songs: Numbers, After Everything, Invisible

#10: Hologram of Baal (1998)

Songs: Anasthesia, Louisiana, Another Earth

#9: Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)

Songs: Metropolis, Laughing, Grind

#8: Untitled #23 (2009)

Songs: Space Saviour, Anchorage, Operetta

#7: Of Skins and Heart (1981)

Songs: The Unguarded Moment, Bel-Air, Is This Where You Live

#6: The Blurred Crusade (1982)

Songs: Almost With You, You Took, An Interlude

#5: Remote Luxury (1984)

Songs: A Month of Sundays, No Explanation, Shadow Cabinet

#4: Seance (1983)

Songs: One Day, Electric Lash, Fly

#3: Priest=Aura (1992)

Songs: Ripple, Feel, The Disillusionist

#2: Heyday (1986)

Songs: Already Yesterday, Happy Hunting Ground, Tantalized

#1: Starfish (1988)

Songs: Reptile, Destination, North South East and West

Robert's book on The Church:

P.S. We do earn commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post and throughout the blog

Listen to the songs featured above

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[Friday On The Turntable] The Church - Starfish

Welcome to this week's Friday On The Turntable feature! For those of you that follow my blog on Facebook, you'll recall that each Friday I post a featured record that I'm currently enjoying. To enhance the experience, I've been filming short videos - discussing a brief history of the record, my favorite tracks and what it means to me. The video is embedded below - don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel here.

This week's featured album is Starfish - the 1988 album from the Australian band, The Church. Please enjoy, and feel free to leave me your thoughts on this record. Thanks for watching!

Also, check out my 15 Best Songs of The Church feature - here.

AND... If you'd like to see how every album in The Church's catalog ranks - that's right here

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Album Of The Week: Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy - White Magic

"Life is like a river, baby - you've got to find a way to get across before everything's lost"

Many of you may know Steve Kilbey as the singer of the great Australian band The Church. With over 20 Church records, eight solo albums and numerous collaborations, it goes without saying that Steve Kilbey is incredibly prolific. 2011 brings the second album from his pairing with fellow Australian, and leader of All India Radio, Martin Kennedy. Since it appeared in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago, it has quickly become one of my favorite albums of the year.

White Magic opens with The Demo, a spacey track with a cool backbeat and female backing vocals ala Dark Side of The Moon. A killer opener.  Intense is stunning. It contains my absolute favorite moment of the album: the guitar solo - just perfect in its simplicity. Intense is the best of the best on this album, and it's been on constant repeat. Check it out below.

White Magic is a solid record all the way through. Martin Kennedy's instrumentation lays a relaxed, dreamy backdrop to prop up the rich texture of Kilbey's vocals. In fact, his vocals have never sounded better to these ears. I'm gonna stop talking now, because we can't waste any time here - you gotta add this album to your collection right away, it is a gem. 

Key Tracks:  Intense, Inner Country, The Mountain

Buy White Magic on Amazon:  CD, MP3

The Church. The 15 Best Songs

It's been a great year for The Church.  Not only are they celebrating their 30th Anniversary, but they were also given their country's highest musical honor - a permanent place in Australia's Recording Arts Hall of Fame (ARIA).

In celebration of their 30th Anniversary, I would like to present you with my list of The Church's 15 Best Songs.  As you may be aware, this band has a gigantic catalog, so narrowing it down to just 15 choices was very difficult!  Be sure to scroll down to the bottom for a Spotify playlist, featuring the tracks from this post. Please feel free to leave comments, including your picks for The Church's Best Songs. 

15.  A New Season
From the album Starfish (1988)

14.  No Explanation
From the Persia EP; and on Remote Luxury (1984)

13.  My Little Problem
From the album Sometime Anywhere (1994)

12.  Destination
Released as single; appeared on the album Starfish (1988)

11.  Electric Lash
Released as single; appeared on the album Seance (1983)

10. North, South, East and West
From the album Starfish (1988)

09.  Tantalized
Released as single (1986); appeared on the album Heyday (1985)

08.  Already Yesterday
Released as single; appeared on the album Heyday (1985)

07.  Space Saviour
From the album Untitled #23 (2009)

06.  A Month of Sundays
From the Remote Luxury EP (1984)

05.  Reptile
Released as single; appeared on the album Starfish (1988)

04.  The Unguarded Moment
Released as single; appeared on the album Of Skins and Heart (1981)

03.  Almost With You
Released as single; appeared on the album The Blurred Crusade (1982)

02.  Under the Milky Way
Released as single; appeared on the album Starfish (1988)

01.  Metropolis
Released as single; appeared on the album Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)

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