The Church's third disc, Seance, was released in May 1983 and, while there are some stand-out tracks, the overall sound of the disc is a step in the wrong direction.

This time out, Steve Kilbey wrote all of the tracks, aside for the glorious space-rock jam "Travel By Thought". The band self-produced the record and utilized engineer Nick Launay for the final mixes. While the band continues to move yet further toward the textured, neo-psychedelic sound of their later discs, the mixing left the disc sounding flat and the dated "80's" pre-programmed drum effects make less of the songs stand out than on the band's two previous discs.

While there are elements of some of the jangly power-pop sounds from the prior discs on Seance, prominent keyboard and strings push the disc closer to the "new romantic" camp of OMD and Lloyd Cole & the Commotions. The stronger cuts on the disc are the one's where the band's music is able to shimmer outside of the murky mixing. These include "Electric Lash" and "Travel By Thought" (both of which feature stream-of-conscious lyrics from Kilbey) and "Dropping Names" and the slow burning "Disappear?".



The two bonus tracks - "Someone Special" and "Autumn Soon" - were originally the b-sides of "It's No Reason" and "Electric Lash". "Someone Special" is pleasant but somewhat bland but "Autumn Soon" features some soaring guitar leads and what sounds to be a "real" drummer.

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