The Church – Priest=aura (2xLP, Music On Vinyl)

The Church’s Priest=Aura arrived in 1992 as the Australian band’s eighth studio album, and it still feels like a turning point: longer, stranger, and more absorbed in atmosphere than the records around it. Even the title has its own offbeat origin, coming from Steve Kilbey misreading a Spanish fan’s vocabulary notes. That slightly skewed perspective suits the music perfectly, because this is an album built from imagistic lyrics, drifting tension, and songs that prefer mood and movement to obvious hooks.

It was also the first Church album with drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, known for his work with Patti Smith, and his presence matters. The rhythms have a looser, more open feel that gives the band’s psychedelic rock and dream pop an almost jazz-like pull. Tracks like “Ripple,” “Dome,” and “Feel” show how confidently the band stretched out here, while the full 14-song sequence gives the record an unusually immersive shape.

Among fans, Priest=Aura is often treated as one of the band’s artistic high points, and that reputation is easy to hear. It’s expansive without feeling diffuse, with the guitars creating a brooding, luminous backdrop for Kilbey’s abstract writing. For listeners who know The Church mainly through their more immediate records, this is the one that opens the deeper, more dreamlike side of the catalogue.

Features

• 2xLP, 180g, Music On Vinyl

Reviews

• the Church came up with its best album to date. - AllMusic.com