For me, Starfish and GAF are linked by "the moment", between 1988 and 1991, when The Church was actually exposed to the American mainstream music scene. These are the only two albums that received mainstream attention, thanks to singles and videos which received decent airplay on radio and MTV. This was NOT true of any Church album before Starfish or after GAF, at least not in the USA.

Plus, I made so many Starfish-GAF tapes for friends during college that I can't separate the two albums in my head. In fact, because I usually removed Essence, You're Still Beautiful and Fading away to make GAF fit on a 45-minute cassette, I always think of it as a 10-song album :-)

As Fraulein Myrrh said, GAF is still much better than so much of the music released since 1990. I still listen to it regularly, and I still enjoy it. I just don't feel passionate about it, because it doesn't have the MAGIC of the best Church albums.

-Marcelo