Album #84 : The Church - Of Skins and Heart

The Church

Of Skins And Heart (1981)

The Church have basically only had two major hits in their entire career. One was the gorgeous Under The Milky Way. The other was a sprawling post-punk tune, and staple of late-night Rage playlists, The Unguarded Moment. Both are great songs, but the fact that they're really the only Church songs of note leads one to ask the question - what were the band really like? What did they have besides a lush ballad and a surrealistic post-punk exploration of not really giving a toss about what others do unless you let your guard down?

To find out, I decided to review their first album, Of Skins and Heart. Penned entirely by bassist/vocalist Steve Kilbey (with occasional help from others), it consists of eight post-punk songs, then a ninth song that starts as a slow, eerie mood piece (before turning into a post-punk song). 

The Album

Despite the fact that there's not a great deal of variety in structures, Of Skins And Heart manages to pack together several very good songs, along with the remaining tunes being pretty solid. Jangly guitars abound, as do sparse post-punk arrangements, though at times the group bend their trademark sounds for something a little different.

No review of this album should start by not talking about Hit 1, The Unguarded Moment. Despite Kilbey himself disowning the song as some sort of lame Buggles soundalike, the truth is that with its iconic opening guitar line, steady chugging verse riff and surreal lyrics, it's a brilliant slice of early 80s post-punk/new wave/pop. It's not the only quality song on the album though! Memories of Future Tense opens with a Sabbathesque chug which catches the attention, before settling into a pretty cool little post-punk track. She Never Said echoes the work of The Jam (though without the flair and brilliance of Foxton and Buckler, and without the cleverness of Weller) and The Cars, with sparse instrumentation, multitracked vocals and a tasteful fusing of pop and post-punk. Fighter Pilot....Korean War is as surreal as its title suggests, and it's loaded with some great riffs (some of which are mildly dissonant).

Is This Where You Live is really the only song that challenges the artistic norm here. This is the aforementioned slow, eerie mood piece; built, in the early stages, around spooky synth choirs and a repetitive, plodding two-note bassline. Gradually, the song builds in intensity, as Kilbey's vocal and the droning guitars gain in volume. Suddenly, halfway through, the song explodes back into the album's normal post-punk uptempo mode. The synths are stripped away and the track becomes sparser, allowing guitarist Peter Koppes to take centre stage with a quite messy solo (though given his work elsewhere, it's fair to say it's deliberate). It's a great song because of its differences, even if it's a tad repetitive.

Other tracks on the album fit the 'solid if unspectacular' mould. Bel-Air is Smiths-lite with a Johnny Marr-esque jangly guitar sound, For A Moment We're Strangers and Chrome Injury do the post-punk thing by numbers, and closing track Don't Open The Door To Strangers brings acoustic guitars and booming drums to the forefront, and includes a decent slide guitar solo.

The Verdict

Of Skins And Heart is a pretty good album, and quite an easy listen. From listening to the album, I did think that perhaps The Church were a little better than perhaps they're given credit for, generally; their only crime, on this album at least, is that there's not much variety in their sound. Though in later years, this would change quite a bit.

Happily, it was not just The Unguarded Moment And Other Stuff. There's some good tracks here that deserve attention.

My rating: *** and a half

Standout Tracks

The Unguarded Moment

Fighter Pilot...Korean War

Memories of Future Tense

The next album is our latest 26th of the month Super Aussie Album! It's by one of Australia's biggest, and most successful hard rock groups....but it's not an album that you might expect to be reviewed.