By bringing together tracks from the band"s two Australian label eras (Parlophone and Mushroom), Raven has been able to create one of its most impressive and satisfying career overview CDs. Lavish and detailed in the extreme - with perhaps the most sumptuous packaging ever devoted by this company to a single disc - ALMOST YESTERDAY 1981-1990 is an extended, 17-song, 77-minute musical odyssey through the rich catalogue of a band which has explored an intellectual and emotional territory with an idiosyncratic approach for a over a decade and a half. With every original album and EP up to 1990 represented, this compilation invites you to marvel at the constant, subtle progression of a band that has long existed very much within its own musical idiom, dispensing ethereal magic and seamless sound of an immediately identifiable style and quality. Hits and landmarks, such as UNGUARDED MOMENT, ALMOST WITH YOU and UNDER THE MILKY WAY, are included along with tantalixing rarities, such as a version of Paul Simon"s I AM A ROCK which has not been available since its original 1982 Australian vinyl EP release, and the later single B-side TEXAS MOON, which ended up on an "Archives" album but is not widely known. There have been a handful of Church compilations issued since 1988, but none have captured more than a segment of the band"s output. This is the first proper Church anthology, covering the vital first decade of operation.