Search - The Church :: Gold Afternoon Fix

The most exciting band that ever existed

Thomas Thomsen | Denmark | 09/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Church is a criminally underrated Australian rock group and is my all-time favorite band. The esoteric and enigmatic Steve Kilbey's cool and captivating vocals, his interesting stream-of-consciousness lyrics, the two exciting guitarists - Marty Willson-Piper, Peter Koppes - and Tim Powles, a drummer with great production skills, make for an all-round class act. Since 1981 they've released one great album after another, and Gold Afternoon Fix is one of their best.

First single Metropolis, with its chiming guitars and melodic pop hook, was my introduction to The Church back in 1990, and the reason I became aware of this wonderful band. I soon bought Gold Afternoon Fix and was mesmerized by its - mostly - melancholic beauty. A few songs such as the aforementioned single and Monday Morning are more... "light-hearted", if you will...but the overall dark atmosphere of Gold Afternoon Fix never becomes depressing. The Church's music contains both darkness and light, just like life itself, and comes off as being very real. The lazy, laid-back melancholia of Disappointment - with Kilbey's sad, detached vocal and the beautifully understated bass and electric/acoustic guitars - is indeed a very special song; not for everybody perhaps, but to me it remains one of my favorite Church songs. As does Grind, which is one of my all-time favorite songs by any artist. Terra Nova Cain and lead-off track Pharoah are some of the most atmospheric rock songs I have ever heard and represent everything I absolutely adore about the Church - the Essence of their sound. Pharoah is stunning, and my all-time favorite Church song.



To me Gold Afternoon Fix is a masterpiece and as good as music gets.



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