80. Under The Milky Way – The Church

I guess there was no way The Church wouldn’t have existed in 80s Australia: every memory of them is VHS faded, black and white film green with age of some young, long-haired, paisley-shirted, sunglassed men taking themselves seriously as history Iiterally passed while they filmed, making them an memory live to tape, a band who thought it was a great idea to put out a record sleeve where they’re blending into the carpet before the camera for their biggest album.

And it pains me to leave out Tantalized from this list, possibly their best song among many, but we can’t deny that Donnie Darko happened, and made this their biggest song instead. And what a glorious thing it is too, especially when that solo comes (which I have always thought it was a bagpipe solo, and I bet I’m not alone in this, but it turns out to be an eBow. Which is so disappointing, as I’ve spent more time than I should wondering how they perform it live, and how much they regretted the bagpipes when they were on tour in the Midwest, with all those people really only coming for this one song and they didn’t have a bagpipe player, and thinking about how it’s in the top 3 rock songs with bagpipe solos, along with It’s a Long Way to the Top by AC/DC and You’re the Voice by Johnny Farnham. And there’s another thing I didn’t think I’d type today).

However they came to it, it was a moment of genius, of transcendence, and they don’t come round often. Sublime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWxJEIz7sSA