The first Top Ten Songs of 2019 was requested by my longtime, music-loving friend, Säde. The Church, an Australian psychedelic rock meets new wave meets dream pop band, who were formed in 1980, in Sydney, is our first band to get the Top Ten Songs treatment at Lyriquediscorde.
I first came to know The Church with their 1988 album Starfish, and the hit song, “Under the Milky Way”. “Under the Milky Way” quickly became one of my all-time favorite songs, which still holds a high place on that list still, even after thirty years. I’ve written a lot about the song, and the way it embedded itself in me, but audibly, and visually. I used to drive around playing the song, turned up high, imagining a film set to the song.
Top Ten Songs by The Church
Lyriquediscorde
1. “Under the Milky Way”
from the album, Starfish (1988)
“Wish I knew what you were looking for,
might have known what you would find.”
2. “Metropolis”
from the album, Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)
“There’ll never be another quite like you.
I’m so involved with everything you do.”
3. “Reptile”
from the album, Starfish (1988)
“Go now,
you’ve been set free.
Another month or so you’ll be gorging on me,
with your lovely smile.
I see you slither away with your skin and your tail,
your flickering tongue,
and your rattling scales –
like a real reptile.”
4. “Destination”
from the album, Starfish (1988)
“In the space between our houses,
some bones have been discovered.
But, our procession lurches on,
as if we had recovered.”
5. “The Unguarded Moment”
from the album, Of Skins and Heart (1982)
“So deep,
deep without a meaning.
I knew you’d find me leaving.
Tell those friends with cameras for eyes,
that their hands don’t make me hang,
they only make me feel like breathing.
In an unguarded moment.”
6. “No Explanation”
from the album, Sing-Song/Remote Luxury/Persia (2001)
“Hope you can see,
what that’s done to me.
But, I don’t care to look into your eyes.
There’s no explanation.”‘
7. “A Face In a Film”
from the album, man woman life death infinity (2017)
“Monsters and mirages.
A minaret, a coronet.
Like a motor when it charges.
Gotta pay for all the surges.
Silhouettes and sentimental.
A figure in the surf.
Oh, the time is temperamental.
All our lives are not attained.”
8. “You’re Still So Beautiful”
from the album, Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)
“You’re still beautiful baby,
nobody can take that away.
You’re still beautiful baby,
even when you fall down that way.”
9. “A New Season”
from the album, Starfish (1988)
“It’s strange and wilder.
Ageless bechilder.
Saved by fire.
Touched and finer.”
10. “Laurel Canyon”
from the album, Further/Deeper (2014)
“All those times we parted,
all those times we saw it through,
couldn’t finish what I started,
I was diminished without you.
There’s music in my memory,
and I listen as the miles go by.
I guess I’m only temporary,
like a love song flowing by.”
