release date: 1987 (December?)
format: digital (1989 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Rough Trade Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Transaction" - 3. "Woman With Reason" - 4. "A Favourite Pack of Lies" - 5. "Something That Means Something" - 8. "Ariel Sings"
3rd solo album by Steve Kilbey is like his two previous albums produced by Kilbey himself. The album saw its first national release limited to a vinyl edition on Red Eye Records in late '87, but that album comes without four tracks recorded in '89 (tracks #1, #3, #7, and #11). The song "A Favorite Pack of Lies" clearly features parts of the music from the instrumental track "The Dawn Poems" which is found on the precursor, Earthed (1987), and which perhaps may be seen as a kind of draft for this track with added lyrics. Like the predecessor, this one was recorded, mixed, produced, written, and composed by Kilbey with minor assistance, and again (girlfriend) Karin Jansson is credited as a co-writer on some tracks. Incidentally, the '89 reissue (this one) starts with the track "Transaction", which features Donette Thayer - with whom Kilbey formed the band Hex in '88 - on guitar, and this extended release consists of twelve tracks with a total length of 46 minutes.
At this particular stage of his career, Kilbey is in a fairly productive phase. Together with the other members of The Church, he has thus been behind the studio album Heyday (Nov. '85), his solo debut Unearthed (Jan. 1986), the instrumental successor Earthed (May '87) issued alongside a book of the same name consisting of poetry and essays, and then this album from late '87, after which he was once again ready with a bunch of new songs for The Church with whom he recorded the critically acclaimed Starfish - recorded in '87 and released Feb. '88.
Stylistically, this is more in the same realm as his solo debut and it ties in nicely with releases with The Church. It's alt. rock, indie pop and it both contains jangle pop and elements of neo-psychedelia. Most of the compositions are uptempo tracks with a normal song structure, and the way I hear this album, it sounds more like a kind of 'forgotten' release by The Church - or, it's the kind of material that could easily have been intended for compositions with the band.
