After "Milky Way," the album contains "Reptile," in which the guitar parts sound like a slithering lizard. Also first rate are the excellent ballad "Lost," the mid tempo openeing song "Destination," and the epic "Hotel Womb" that closes the album. The rest of the tracks are strong, filling in the gaps quite well.

Overall, "Starfish" represents that rare convergence in rock music when the most popular album by a particular artist also happens to be the most worthy.

Amazing album
I first heard the beautiful plucked strings of Reptile in the winter of 1988 when I was a freshman in high school...I managed to pop a tape in the deck and record the second half of the song off the radio, not knowing who it was. I played that tape over and over! It wasn't until a few months later the song came back on the radio and the dj was kind enough to announce the track's name and artist.

No one in school had heard of The Church except this one senior in science class; she said, "Didn't they do that spacey milky galaxy song?"

The summer of '89 I found the whole album in [store] of all places...I bought it with The Cult's 'Sonic Temple' (remember 'Fire Woman' anyone?) and raced home to listen to them both.

Boy, was I disappointed...I was really looking forward to enjoying The Cult album, but it was actually Starfish which caught my attention. It was a very hot summer that year, the guitars shimmered as much as the blacktop and desert and I truly felt that the temperature dropped a few degrees while the album played.

I could listen to the whole album over and over...my favorite Church song today remains 'Reptile', it was one of the first things I tried to learn on guitar! As I'm much older now I appreciate the entire album as a complete work. Musically and technically it is very good, anyone who likes the layered 'jangly' sound of Johnny Marr/The Smiths will certainly enjoy most of the songs on the album.

The only other albums I've had of The Church were Gold Afternoon Fix, Priest = Aura and The Blurred Crusade. I LOVE The Blurred Crusade and a few tracks off the other ones, but Starfish is by far THE one I would take to the grave with me.

The winners on Starfish are Reptile, Destination, Spark and Hotel Room. Sorry folks, Milky Way doesn't do it for me like it does others, but that's alright...it gets some airplay here from time to time, it must still be a requested song.

Excellent
Title track and "Blood Money" are the best recordings.

This is a very unique group, in a gloomy-pop sort of way.
Sort of a David Bowie type dreariness to this work, but a sense of hope propels itself through much of the work too. Very complex and very interesting.

DREAM DEEP, DREAM OF NOW, NOW AND FOREVER GOOD
For The Church the stars and planets must have been especially aligned for this album to be made. Never before or since have The Church enjoyed some widespread appeal. Starfish was the first record The Church had recorded outside of their native Australia. This was the first time they had recorded in a studio different from the one they had made their first five albums. Reading band accounts of making of Starfish makes one wonder why they didn't call the record "L.A. Sucks".

The Church hated Los Angeles and barely endured their two-month stay. During that time the city experienced two major earthquakes and numerous tremors. The band members suffered serious bouts of homesickness and dislocation in a lonely town at once both ugly and magnetic. They had lost their recording contract with EMI and had just completed negotiating and signing with Arista. Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi were assigned to produce the band-two individual mostly known for their association with the Southern California sound of the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks. An antithesis to what the Church stood for and a recipe for friction for all sides. Wachtel had the band rehearse these ten songs over and over-picking them apart and building them back together again ad finitum. Ladanvi on the other hand was apt to be off at the golf course after barely getting the songs on tape in one take.

The first thing that hits you about this record is how much of a "guitar album" it is. Starfish is awash in several different guitar styles and carefully thought out patterns and lines. The result is a lean, cutting and harder edged sound that paradoxically produces a gentle feel. On "Hotel Womb", the song begins with a set of dark wandering notes which suddenly switch to a series of childlike chords and strumming as an organ plays a short set of descending notes. The drums kick in as the vocalist begins to sing to a growling guitar march that evolves into a dueling solo match which ends like a clap in a thunderstorm. The song rides out on a fast and grand soaring wailfest fading into eternity. This all combines to the effect of strength, beauty, and sublimity in a short five minutes forty seconds. All this for one song. Such detailed musicianship is evident throughout the whole record.

Lyrically The Church are as obscure as ever. It is difficult to say exactly what most of the songs are about. But the listener is caught by seemingly random conjured images that come at you in an incomprehensible emotional crossfire. "Under The Milky Way" may seem like a romantic, dreamy song; but Steve Kilbey says its really about a hash bar in Amsterdam. Some listeners, however, thought it was a conversation between an ancient Egyptian priest and a supplicant as they stood on the roof of a temple in the dead of night. Others thought with the mention of "Memphis" the song was actually a monologue spoken by Elvis as he drove the streets by night.

All this combines into a heady brew of psychedelic mysticism and drama. The songs form a journey of danger and disturbing revelations with glimpses of other worlds. Hints of buried bodies in strange cities, revenge, blackmail and homesickness abound. Wedding rings for strange women, dancing with the primitives in dark watery forests and seeing building "swaying like trees" express a love for life that is heartfelt but is in no way sentimental. Just when you think you understand comes an image or a lyrics which sets you back and makes you wonder if you understand at all.

This is a wonderful CD. The Church would go on to recede into obscurity while making more superb records; but they never found an equal to Starfish. While made in the 1980's it is not an "eighties" record with an "eighties" sound. I can scarcely think of another record like it at all. It is among the best of the best. Sometimes the best gifts come from far away. Sometimes the sweetest sounds are those you can barely hear.

Dreamy soundscapes
Nineteen Eighty-Eight was a huge year for Aussie rock. There was this album by The Church, Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust, and INXS' Kick. I was already familiar with INXS, but not Midnight Oil or The Church. Actually, Starfish was a much quieter discovery than the other two. I had read a little review of the album and decided to pick it up on reputation alone. What a great investment. I have since given my cassette copy to my sister and upgraded to CD.
"Destination" is a wonderfully dreamy intro song. It has a lovely bridge where Steve Kilbey is almost speaking rather than singing. "Under the Milky Way" is an obvious single, although I had never heard it before. There is a great frantic bagpipes sound in the middle of the song. "Blood Money" is another fine song. I started noticing there was something similar here to Midnight Oil's sound - maybe the backing vocals in the choruses.
Man I could go on about all these songs! Side two (LP speaking) is also strong, with the upbeat "Spark" and "Reptile." But The Church are best known for their laid-back guitar rock. Like the Amazon reviewer said, they pre-dated what was to become the English rock sound of the '90s. The mega-successful Coldplay especially sounds influenced by The Church. I also notice similarities with The Verve (psychedelia) and R.E.M. (jangly guitars). They all owe something to the Byrds.