“The Unguarded Moment” by The Church

"The Unguarded Moment" came out in 1981 as the second single from Of Skins and Heart, the debut album by Australia's the Church, on EMI's freshly revived Parlophone label. Steve Kilbey, who sings and plays bass and keyboards, wrote it with Michelle Parker, his wife at the time, and it's all chiming, ringing guitars from Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper over Richard Ploog's brisk drums, with Bob Clearmountain mixing and co-producing alongside Chris Gilbey.

It gave the band their first radio hit, and its maker has never warmed to it: Kilbey later said it gives him no pleasure at all, though he allowed it might have thrilled listeners dreading a decade of the Human League and Buggles. His country disagreed with him, ranking it among the most Australian songs of all time on Triple M's Ozzest 100 in 2018 and voting it into Triple J's Hottest 100 of Australian Songs in 2025.

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