“Under the Milky Way” by The Church

"Under the Milky Way" floated out of Australia in February 1988 as a single from Starfish, the Church's fifth studio album, and it's the sound of a band discovering how much space a song can hold. Steve Kilbey, who sings and plays bass, wrote it with Karin Jansson of Curious (Yellow), his girlfriend at the time.

The production team was the Church themselves with Greg Ladanyi and Waddy Wachtel, and they wrap everything in a deep, starry murk. Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper weave their guitars into a slow, chiming drift, Richard Ploog keeps the drums soft and steady, Greg Kuehn adds keyboards, and Awesome Welles brings in a synclavier that keens and drones like something from another century. Kilbey's voice sits at the center, low and weary, half dreaming. Shep Lonsdale engineered and shared the mix.

It crossed the Pacific, too, reaching No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100, and back home it won Single of the Year at the 1989 ARIA Music Awards. The years haven't dimmed it: Triple M put it at No. 33 on its Ozzest 100 in 2018, and it came in at No. 29 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of Australian Songs in 2025.

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