The Hindsight album is a collection of all the singles and b-sides released before the Starfish album came out. Prior to this release much of the Church's material was only available on hard-to-find 7" singles which were only available second hand. This double album put all those songs into an easily accessible package and, incidentally, probably deflated the market for old Church singles too.
If you're only familiar with their newer material but aren't sure if you want to go through the expense of buying all the older albums then this double CD is an excellent place to start.
Steve added notes to each song in the liner of this album -
Disc One
4:15 The Unguarded Moment * - Actually recorded as an afterthought for "Skins And Heart". The song that made it all possible ... thank you very much.
3:52 In A Heartbeat *B-side of "She Never Said", and one of the first times in the recording studio for The Church ... this is August-September 1980. We still sometimes drag this one out and give it a good kicking.
3:37 Too Fast For You - Title track of the double single. Strangely unsatisfying despite all the usual ingredients.
4:20 Tear It All Away - The other A-side of the double single. I like this a lot better than TFFY, we used to open our set with this song and it was a good manifesto for a while. The Church sounds really beginning to come together on this one.
3:43 Sisters - B-side to TFFY. The first song we wrote together. Pretty Pretty.
7:44 Is This Where You Live?* - Our first pseudo-epic. There were all sorts of traumas recording this one. I remember that. Backwards guitar solo and first use of the vocoder; still a good song to end the night to this day.
4:16 Almost With You - The Definitive Church Song Neat Spanish guitar from Peter, Richard makes attractive percussive noises with some little sticks or something, and Marty jingle jangles.
3:07 Fraulein - Double single B-side. Noisy, Bob Clearmountain's favourite Church song (?). We never really did anything like this again.
2:42 You've Got To Go - Another double single B-side. Didn't exactly turn out the way I'd imagined... but then most of 'em didn't.
4:47 The Golden Dawn - B-side to "When You Were Mine". The Golden Dawn was a Magickal Society in the early part of this century (Richard's idea for a title). Slippery little instrumental, and whats all that whispering in the background about ?
7:04 Life Speeds Up - Another epic ... better live than this slightly stiff version. Once used as part of a surfing film [Riders Of The Storm ? ed.], (inappropriatesville, I thought) and also B-side of "Almost With You".
5:46 When You Were Mine - From the B-crusade. Still a live favourite despite continuous active duty.
Disc Two
4:27 Electric Lash - Released as single a hit in some areas.
3:49 The Night Is Very Soft - Well, I liked this one despite shortcomings. A representative track from "Sing Songs" E.P., rehearsed and recorded in two nights, very quick. This song had something previously missing but I can't say what it is, just now. The rustle of royalties ?
4:30 Autumn Soon - B-side of Electric Lash single. Pete plays sitar-guitar. To me this one never regained conciousness after the mix ... but the lyrics were OK even if I do say so myself.
5:16 It's No Reason - This was a single and probably shouldn't have been ... certain nursery rhyme quality and intrinsic melancholy makes it unsuitable for general consumption. This is really where rock and roll and The Church begin to part ways. My fault entirely, I'm afraid.
4:13 Someone Special - B-side Pop Song. La La La.
4:21 A Month Of Sundays - My favourite off "Remote Luxury" E.P. A true story, this actually happened. Can you hear the six string bass ? [ed. The Fender six-string bass resurfaced for Priest=Aura and the tour]
4:19 Shadow Cabinet - Off Persia. Group composition. One of my fave ever Church songs. This one has everything that was good about us in 1984. Was it really that long ago ? Chiming Riff by Marty piles on tension and Peter does Star-Trek E-Bowing.
4:49 As You Will - B-side to "Already Yesterday" Written and sung by P. Koppes. Throbs along quite nicely, I reckon. Ornamental or warm and gentle...
4:19 Myrrh - First track on Heyday, and, in my book, the best. This song is a kind of travelogue of my then literary input plus poignant music by the band.
3:44 The View - Written and sung by M-W-P, B-side to Tantalized. Live favourite on pre-Heyday tours.
4:49 Trance Ending - B-side to Columbus. Recorded at home, I like this better than anything else on this record. I guess that shows where my head's at.
4:59 Tantalized - Big rocker with horns. 2nd single from Heyday. Everybody seemed to like this at the time, chunky guitars, full on singing and autobiographical lyrics. Ploog played the bongos.
LP EMI PCSO 430060/1 (Australia)
Cass EMI TCPCSO-430060/1 (Australia)
CD EMI CDP 430060 (Australia)
The guitar pictured on the cover is a Shergold and the legs are Marty's. The Shergold was stolen and Marty is still looking for a replacement !
At least one issue of this double album had an amusing SNAFU in it - the contents of the two discs were swapped ! Disc one had disc two music, and vice versa. It was an EMI release in Australia and my boss has a copy of it.
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