Church

We can’t feel those aches and pains
We won’t listen to the voices in the city rain
Giving the orders
Another morning I’ll be gone
I start the car for Violet Town
And then to Babylon, over the border

In 1985 the so-called sunburnt country had a lot to offer on the alt-rock and post-punk front, from Nick Cave's nascent bad seeds, to Crime & The City Solution, by way of Scientists, Hoodoo Gurus and Go-Betweens, to name just a few of the most important ones. “Heyday” by the Church fit perfectly into this landscape, marking the moment when Australian jangle-pop, shot through with psychedelia, truly found its voice. Although it was the Go-Betweens from Brisbane who really excelled in this field (with more of a leaning towards indie-pop), their commercial breakthrough "Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express" wouldn't see the light of day until a few months later, in March 1986.

Their fourth studio album (fifth if you count the 1984 compilation "Remote Luxury", released in that format for the international market), “Heyday” is a divisive work among fans of the Sydney-based outfit. Marked for the first time by collective songwriting born out of studio jam sessions, rather than being almost exclusively the domain of frontman Steve Kilbey, it signals a shift away from the dark, melancholic post-punk of their earlier work, bringing in brighter, more psychedelic and atmospheric textures through the use of horns, strings and keyboards. The brass in particular would become a genuine point of contention (and for some, a real bone of contention) among certain critics and early followers of the band.

Lending crucial support to this orchestral turn was the key figure of producer Peter Walsh, an expert in blending new wave and synth-pop thanks to his experience with Simple Minds, Peter Gabriel, Spandau Ballet, China Crisis and others. The album also handed Church the keys to their first entry on the US charts, a small preview of the success that would fully materialise with the following "Starfish" (1988). Los Angeles was in the thick of its Paisley Underground period, and although our band was a world away from California, their sound shared with Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade and the like the same twelve-string dream and the same love for the chiaroscuro neo-psychedelia of the sixties. The album's title literally points to a "golden period", a statement of intent made clear right from the magnetic, mystical opening of "Myrrh", whose guitar sets the general pace for the tracks that follow.

The band's sophisticated pop influences look to figures like David Sylvian, Bryan Ferry and, to some extent, David Bowie, while on the Sixties side it's the Byrds, Moody Blues and Beatles who dominate, the latter clearly audible among the beat-era nostalgia of "Tristesse". The arrangement of bright harmonies, folk-rock details and jangling melodies on "Already Yesterday" opens the way to the keyboards of the dynamic "Columbus", whose lyrical perspective is that of Isabella I, Queen of Spain, which is then followed, quite fittingly, by the boldness of the symphonic swells and near-tribal percussion of the fully instrumental "Happy Hunting Ground".
Born as the B-side of the single "Already Yesterday" and initially available only on CD and cassette due to limited space on vinyl, much like the closing pair of tracks, the hypnotic "As You Will" features Peter Koppes on vocals and brilliant guitar interplay framing an evocative journey towards some hidden paradise.

The second half of the record is ideally marked by the sparkling high point "Tantalized", which brilliantly highlights the live energy generated by the quartet's ensemble work in the studio, incorporating R&B-tinged horns and dance flourishes. "Night Of Light" carries on in the same mood, but not before catching its breath with the harmonies of "Disenchanted", released as a single only for the UK market. The baroque peak belongs to the opulent strings and horns of "Youth Worshipper", whose melody was composed by Kilbey together with Swedish musician Karin Jansson, his girlfriend at the time, fading into the interweavings of "Roman".
Rounding off this rich batch are the epic stride of "The View", sung by Marty Willson-Piper, and the atmospheric, faintly Arabic-tinged "Trance Ending", the respective B-sides of the singles "Tantalized" and "Columbus".

The far-reaching sonic expansion of “Heyday” would spread across American college radio stations, eventually reaching the upper echelons of Arista Records, where founder and producer Clive Davis, sensing the potential of Kilbey and co.'s project, offered them a contract for the American market, with the aim of steering Church from the underground circuit into the mainstream, shifting the focus back onto guitars and "drying out" the band's soundscapes. Among those who would go on to openly declare their admiration for that sound were the Smashing Pumpkins, as well as House Of Love and Catherine Wheel, helping to shape the roster of alt-rock and dream-pop influences from the late Eighties onward. So while "Starfish" deserves the credit for cementing the band's place in the global collective imagination, thanks in part to the success of the single "Under The Milky Way", the sound of “Heyday” nonetheless remains the true cornerstone of their stylistic evolution.

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04/10/2026