Heyday by The Church

Heyday, the fourth album by Sydney's the Church, arrived on EMI in November 1985 and gave the band its first chart entry in the United States, at number 148. For the first time, songs written by the whole group dominated a Church record: Steve Kilbey had tired of bringing in his own eight-track demos that sounded stiff next to what the band was doing on stage, so they wrote together instead.

Cut at Studios 301, it trades most of the old keyboards for strings and brass, keeps the guitar interplay between Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper front and center, and trims the solos to almost nothing, with Richard Ploog on drums. Kilbey, on bass, sings every lead and stacks his own harmonies, his voice suddenly warmer and freer than before. Rolling Stone heard a plugged-in cousin of Love's Forever Changes. Not everyone loved the brash horns, but fans still count it among their favorites, and "Myrrh" and "Tantalized" have stayed in the live set.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.