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| from top to bottom: Koppes, Kilbey, Ploog, Piper |
release date: Feb. 22, 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: Waddy Wachtel & The Church
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Pharoah" - 2. "Metropolis" - 3. "Terra Nova Cain" - 4. "City" - 5. "Monday Morning" - 6. "Russian Autumn Heart" - 9. "Disappointment" - 10. "Transient" - 11. "Laughing"
6th studio album by The Church released almost two years after the international breakthrough album Starfish (Apr. '88) and the band's second album on Arista. With the same producer, the company has made attempts to ensure that The Church would follow roughly the same approach and repeat the success, although, the band reportedly had expressed a desire to work with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones to avoid similar negative experiences as adjacent during the recordings for the '88 album. Needless say, record companies are in a position of immense power and controlling recording settings. Internal conflicts led to the band's exclusion of drummer Richard Ploog after the album's release (apparently due to uncontrollable substance abuse) - some tracks were recorded with drum programming; yet Ploog is credited as the drummer.
Having followed the band from the beginning, this was my first real disappointment with their new music. My understanding was that the band had made a clear decision to make music with a wider appeal with their previous album, but upon hearing them try to repeat the success of music that was so close to the same output, didn't make things much better. With this, I gradually tired of the music by The Church, although, I still saw them as having unfulfilled potential - and the album is certainly not without fine moments, and the knowledge of their previous releases also made me continue to listen to the band, even though most often it was their older albums. With producer Wachtel at the helm here, you see the band playing large-scale tracks with heavy arrangements obviously adapted to satisfy the American market - it provides me with the image of being a driver of a mobile home on an American highway. It's no longer a question of being original or innovating - but what's left is the task of forging while the iron is still hot.
Gold Afternoon Fix was met by positive reviews, but it didn't quite reach the expected sales figures. The album peaked at No. #66 on the US Billboard 200 and at No. #12 in Australia, which isn't bad after all. The problem was that the band had seen better chart positions and that they were left with a negative experience with studio recordings and by being residents in Los Angeles. Richard Ploog left the group after this album and he was replaced for the upcoming live tour by Jay Dee Daugherty (of Patti Smith).
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
