The Church - Lacuna [Red]

Most bands never make it to a fifth decade. The Church are not only still here, they are on a creative streak. 2023's The Hypnogogue was hailed as one of the year's best albums and kicked off a new era for the Australian psychedelic dream pop legends, 2024's Eros Zeta and the Perfumed Guitars followed, and a nearly sold-out singles tour across Australia and North America kept them on stage for three-hour sets night after night.

Lacuna, the band's 28th studio album, was recorded in Austin, Texas and mixed by Darrell Thorp. Steve Kilbey leads a lineup of Tim Powles, Ian Haug, Jeffrey Cain, Ashley Naylor, and Nicholas Meredith through seventeen songs, from the nearly seven-minute opener "Lumbini Grove" to the sprawling closer "Sacred Echoes." Lead single "Western" is a hazy, smoky slow burn, and Kilbey describes the whole record as "intense, forlorn, and exultant."

Since forming in Sydney in 1980, The Church have built one of the most cinematic, atmospheric catalogs in alternative rock, and Lacuna shows a band still pushing that sound forward rather than resting on it.

This edition spreads the album across two LPs on red vinyl, with black poly-lined inner sleeves in a gatefold jacket. Out October 30 on Cooking Vinyl. Reserve yours now.