Under the Milky Way: The Best of the Churchby Anonymous

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April 22, 2000: It's been fifteen years since The Church popped up on American radios with their dreamy hit, Under The Milky Way. This new compilation takes us on a fastforward trip through the life of a band that has been huge in Australia for years, but never broke the waves in America. For some reason, the band apparently was never terribly interested in the American market. It's a shame, because a lot of people missed out on a lot of beautiful music. Since 1981, The Church has released eleven albums, the latest in 1999. With it's raw opening song, this album takes us into the Church's world : a young alternative band pounding a different drum in the disco eighties. By the ninth track, Myrrh, we see the group's sound immersed in an increasingly dense layering of sonic texture and poetry. The last half of the collection guides us into the The Church's blissful slide from young rockers to mature artists who aim to bathe the listener in a deep well of musical dream-song. Perhaps my only complaint is that the collection ommitted any selections from The Church's latest album, Hologram of Baal. Several tracks on this album would have been a wonderful addition to the Best of collection. Still, we can hope that a few more outside Australia will be exposed to one of the great musical treats of the last two decades.