The Church – Heyday

Inspired by the other review, here is mine: Myrrh kicks so much ass.

The corner around which Starfish was waiting …

Reviewing Heyday by The Church is an iffy proposition, as most people were first swept away with Starfish, and then attempted to walk the cat backwards, hoping to find something similar, only to walk away wondering if perhaps there were two bands from Australia by the same name, as everything prior to Starfish is completely different … almost unrecognizably so.

With that in mind, it’s important to note that Starfish was an anomaly, a once in a lifetime comet streaking across this side of the galaxy, an album that shimmered from the very first track to the very last, creating an intoxicating splendor that had not been achieved prior, nor would The Church achieve such magic again in the future. This leaves Starfish standing as a line of demarcation, where all of The Church material is either post-Starfish or pre-Starfish. What happened on either side of that gem is like night and day, with almost no comparisons to be made. Here on Heyday, we find the band creating and responding to their three previous albums with a bright and shiny presentation, one that was infused with a strong set of tunes that certainly show a tight responsive creative unit … especially since this was the first album in which the band’s material wast attributed to the band as a whole.

Whatever one loves about this album, that love could just as easily be turned on its head, with those attributes seen as something to dislike, something that comes across as disted. Heyday encomes, and is nearly fraught with uptempo pop tunes that are entirely unlike their other albums, bursting with horns and string arrangements, that while have the ability to dance through some listener’s ears, to others, these same numbers come across as caffeinated jangle pop tugging at your heels, filled with introspection, far too many hooks, and lacks the interplay and interlocking of songs, as would be revealed on Starfish.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Heyday, Starfish and those albums that followed, is that Heyday and those released prior are rather narrow in their scope and vision, while Starfish is vast and expansive, leaving those post Starfish outings laced with a smattering of good songs that attempt to communicate that limitless feel, yet fall ever short. Of course Heyday displays unparalleled ringing guitars that were very much in style during those years, yet that being said, makes The Church just one more in a vast array of new bands smitten with new interruptions of the mid 60’s, attempting to telegraph something along the lines of “Eight Miles High,” by the Byrds. So here again, had Starfish never emerged, we might have a very different opinion of The Church, though considering that idea, had Starfish never been conceived, The Church might just have melded together as one of so many other bands, easily dismissed and forgotten. What this all means is that The Church were who they were only because of Starfish, and it’s only because of Starfish that we even consider the earlier and later material by this psychedelic group.

So where does that leave us when we critically look at Heyday, attempting to see what it brought to light that other likeminded bands were unable to project … with the answer to that question being pretty much left to individual ears, and the appreciation those ears have for those times and this album. I realize I’ve said much to get to this point, yet the nagging truth is that Heyday does not stand as a seminal musical moment, nor does it even come across as a stepping stone leading to the magic of Starfish. Heyday simply hangs out there, recognized only because it was created by The Church, an album that few hands reach for, and while not categorically a bad album, it’s certainly one that comes across as a product of its time, a fashion statement, not an inspiration, not a dialytic juxtaposition, just something that was created while awaiting divine inspiration.

Of course, this is where I turn one hundred and eighty degrees and say that the four albums prior to Starfish are possessed by an elemental resounding purity, even if The Church were in the midst of finding themselves and defining their sound. There’s an undeniable spark found here that can not be denied, a quality of sound that while perhaps not eternally important, can be easily and joyfully embraced.

Review by Jenell Kesler