David M Rangel / October 28, 2026 / Review
Few bands have the kind of staying power, resilience, and consistently relevant musical output as Australia’s, The Church. Now in their fifth decade as a band, they are among the early practitioners of alternative/indie rock who defined their sound by lush, atmospheric soundscapes and poetic, sometimes non-linear, lyrical imagery. They’ve not only inspired generations of future bands, but have been highly influential in helping to establish entire musical genres, such as dream pop and Shoegaze. The band have remained true and consistent to their sound, never bowing to musical trends that have came and went. They’ve stayed on course and weathered through various storms, including acrimonious personnel changes and a dramatically shifting music industry in the age of streaming services and the rush for Internet content.
The Church are best known for their most commercially successful album, 1988’s Starfish, which featured the worldwide hit “Under the Milky Way”. Dedicated fans know that their back catalog and records following Starfish are rife with tracks that rival “Milky Way’s” understated hypnotics, even if the worldwide spotlight didn’t quite hit them at the proper angle. Listeners could do themselves a favor by discovering or revisiting albums such as The Blurred Crusade, Heyday, Priest = Aura and Untitled #23 for a depth filled variety of musical offerings, including neo psychedelia, guitar jangle pop, art rock and other sonics that prove that that the music goes well beyond the simplicity of new wave, a term often incorrectly applied to the band, particularly in the United States.
Lacuna (due out October 30, 2026) kicks off with a fresh return to form with “Lumbini Grove” a track which seems to emulate the entrance of a band taking the stage in a large arena. The gradual swelling of instruments comes in and goes out before we get a singular vocal that leads into the whole band going all out. It’s practically a trip back in time to 120 Minutes era alternative radio rock with the track “Western”, a song that drifts along easily to different settings as if playing out movie-like in a dream.
While many later bands that emulated The Church’s ethereal atmospherics usually turned out to be one trick ponies, lead vocalist/songwriter Steve Kilbey has a knack for taking a time tested musical formula and giving it just enough variance to keep things new and interesting. There are a number of songs on this record that harken back to various musical periods of the band, which sometimes seems to take inspiration from itself. But the tracks on Lacuna are not the typical worn out rehashes of a band from another time. Their cinematic, soft pillow musical landings remain timeless in a way that few bands can pull off after a career of so many years.
There’s a very summer-like feeling of being adrift in some oceanic setting, but in fast motion, with the swirling cadence of “Sky River”. It’s one of those songs you practically feel with other senses besides just hearing. And there is something very jangly like 80s L.A. on “Winter,” a track that sounds like it could have been a standout on the aforementioned The Blurred Crusade. As with a number of songs on the record, the track looks back on an earlier period without stepping over the line into stagnant nostalgia. My personal favorite track, “Sky and Hill” feels like the soundtrack to anybody’s favorite teenage road trip memory. It gives off a wide open, subtly anthemic feeling where you don’t need anything more than just being alive. It’s interesting anomaly to hear Kilbey’s voice being guided by a piano on “Forever”. And the vocal inflections and esoteric observations of a girl who lived in a block of flats in the track “Martian Skyline” give off a Robyn Hitchcock style vibe, a strange but welcome feel on a Church record.
With 17 tracks, Lacuna seems like a bold undertaking for a band with almost 30 albums and 50 years behind them. But The Church have stuck to what they do best and it somehow works despite the fact that it seems like time would be against them. Quite the contrary with this record that shows that the band continues to evolve and move right along, just as they always have.
The album is out everywhere tomorrow, October 30th. Listen to the pre-released tracks here:
