Kept alive by loyal Internet-rallied fans, guitarist Marty Willson-Piper’s work ethic and perhaps even a dab of Donnie Darko magic?its soundtrack featured the band’s lone US hit, 1988’s shimmering “Under The Milky Way”?The Church are, against the odds, still a dreamily appealing proposition. Led, as ever, by the lusciously intimate vocals of Steve Kilbey, they’re still essentially serving up an Antipodean franchise of Echo & The Bunnymen’s sweeping neo-psychedelia. And while this album’s best moments?confidently dramatic opener “Sealine”, the shiveringly anthemic “Telepath”, the sweetly elegiac “Maya”?don’t equal their past glories, Sydney appears to be edging out Liverpool in the ageing-gracefully stakes.
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