The Church - Hindsight 1980-1987 (1988)

The Church are one of alternative music’s great shapeshifting bands. While perhaps best known for the 1988 moody gem “Under the Milky Way,” the Australian group have dabbled in jangle pop, gothic rock, and even shimmering dream pop. Chalk this eclectic nature up to the musical background of vocalist/bassist Steve Kilbey and guitarist Peter Koppes, who were in a glam band before forming The Church with guitarist Marty Willson-Piper in 1980. After debuting a year later with the wiry Of Skins and Heart, the group started writing darker songs before turning once again to misty psychedelic pop-rock on 1988’s Starfish and 1990’s Gold Afternoon Fix; the latter featured the almost-jaunty U.S. hit “Metropolis.” The Church continued recording and releasing a steady stream of records in the ’90s and 2000s. However, after Willson-Piper departed in 2013, the band indulged their more sprawling and proggy tendencies (see: 2015’s Further Deeper) and continued teasing out psychedelic atmospherics on albums such as 2017’s man woman life death infinity.