"I could swear I'm not alone . . . " Nice to finally confirm that I'm not! When I mention the Church to nonbelievers (heh), I usually get a blank look unless someone may vaguely relate to my successive recalling of the summer of '88 and UTMW.

Random Pan -- Yes! GAF is the course of some sort of dream-day . . . do you think this was deliberate on their part? (cf. XTC's Skylarking) . . . and as if to prove the notion further, on my cassette-cut of GAF, I tacked on "Ride Into the Sunset" as the album closer. (A happy ending after all...?)

Marcelo -- Seasonal albums! I definitely have a few. GAF for me: late summer, almost-Autumn. And also an agreeing nod to your earlier notion of the Starfish-GAF Moment / siamese-twin taping. I made that tape several times and wound up indoctrinating various friends! (And yes, they're still friends...)

John DiFool1 -- well, of course; that's what the opening post of this thread was all about. Still, goodwilled criticism and healthy skepticism are important, despite being oft taken the wrong way! And I can relate to your experience -- being also a fan of Marillion (another difficult situation), I listened to their '98 release Radiation once, sprayed it with Lysol, put it on the "sellback" pile and went out for some fresh air.

But I kept not selling it back for some reason. Just this past summer I finally forced myself to listen to it again, and lo 'n' behold, I "discovered" some not-bad-at-all, actually-rather-good tracks. Who knows; maybe you could challenge yourself to revisit GAF . . . but of course, no guarantees, "no certainty attached" you'll hear it anew.

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POST-SCRIPTVM to previous post (as if it wasn't long enuff)
-- That probably wasn't ratiug cirtcele atop "Laughing"; looking thru the liner notes, I see a mention of the e-Bow. Ah. Well, same effect (so to speak)...
-- Gahhh! The vinyl edition of GAF didn't include "Monday Morning" either! Oh, those poor suffering fools who may only know GAF by turntable . . .

--Lt.
A guitar by itself rules nothing.
Only by skillful manipulation does it come alive
.