Add a review or comment
| Name: | fip |
| Review Source (if not you): | Unknown (clipping) |
| Review or Comments: | THE CHURCH
'Gold Afternoon Fix' (Arista LP/Cassette/CD) Maybe it's something to do with the weather. Five years ago, at the time of their shamefully neglected 'Heyday' LP, Australia's The Church appeared to be suffering from big-blue-sky-dreamers syndrome. 'Heyday' was a delightful album, but its paisley gauze of guitar textures and infolded melodies was too conspicuously a filtering of laidback (Californian) Byrds-iness. Well it could be the Greenhouse Effect unsettling Antipodean weather patterns, or it could be that the band took time off for solo ventures after the transitional 'Starfish' LP, but 'Gold Afternoon Fix' is certainly a shadier, more sultry affair. They are still dealing primarily in fluid, impressionistic guitar figures, but the songs are more direct, and a rockier edge has crept in. Main vocalist/lyricist Steve Kilbey is quite the little Lou Reed at times, and nothing so blunt as the "Your little bunch of followers turned you into a fool/The butt of all their vicious jokes" lyric to 'You're Still Beautiful' would have made it into earlier cloud-free abstractions. Maybe they found out that too much sun gives you skin cancer. 'Terra Nova Cain' is sexily sinister, 'Metropolis is addictively poppy in a 'Hey! Wind the windows down and let's cruise!' sort of a way, and the searing burst of 'Essence' is pushy enough to give Guy Chadwick a few extra worry lines. Some of the ideas are less than successful (the dreary strum 'Disappointment' is just that) but there are enough good ones for this to sound more like an accomplished debut, than something released ten years into their career. (7) - Roger Morton |
| Name: | Richie |
| Review or Comments: | The most bashed album in the band's catalog. And unfairly judged in my opinion.
"Gold Afternoon Fix" may show the band's frustration at times with an awful situation in the studio, but the band is still firing on all thrusters here. "Pharoah," opens the album ala destination from the previous "Starfish" as a sonic nightmare brought to fruition. The song to me SCREAMS to be made into a visual masterpiece, but that is not what the boys are about so settling for the just under 4 minutes of a romp through hell and back will have to suffice. "Metropolis" is the song that cemented The Church in my musical vocabulary. I actually like it better than "Under the Milky Way," in terms of the band's commercial appeal and was introduced to it on college radio, while I was actually in COLLEGE so I consider it a baptism to the band of sorts. Pure brilliance. "Terra Nova Cain," is Steve playing around again with his imagery to grand effect. "City," is pure pop heaven, soft and melodious as is "Monday Morning," one of my favorite Church tunes for it's simplicity, yet it is intricate and engrossing at the same time, something quite a few bands can manage to pull off. "Essence" is another pop gem and has hooks to spare. "You're Still Beautiful" may be a strange offering, but it is a fun track to behold. "Russian Autumn Heart" finds Marty having fun while "Disappointment" is Steve harkening back to his melancholy best as he does later with "Grind," the standout closing track. "Fading Away" is one of my favorite tracks with it's mantra-like chorus. While arguably not their most appealing album, one that should simply not have been discarded to the cheap bins either. "Starfish" was a tough act to follow, and I think the boys deserve a listen or several dozen for that matter for producing a consistently listenable piece of work like "Gold Afternoon Fix." |