(priest =)Aura

"THE CHURCH - AURA" (Watch on YouTube)

The first time I heard this song, a friend had the album on shuffle, and I just noticed the weird final bit where "(thing)=(other thing)." I thought it was stupid and a giant step down (or two) from the sort of thing The Church had been doing on Starfish. Which is, honestly, objectively fair for a first impression. "Reptile" is still an amazing piece of songwriting work.

But eventually I got a copy of the album, priest=aura, myself, and listened to it properly, with the early verses, and I fell for it hard. It's a beautiful beginning to the album: a piece of absurd, surreal, and/or psychedelic poetry, with some well-designed atmospheric music. It became a favorite.

I just quoted it in a comment on someone's LJ post, and presumably sounded crazy. And maybe I am.