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Hotel Womb - For Fans of the Church
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Gold Afternoon Fix
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Re: Gold Afternoon Fix
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Lieutenant P
Re: GAF and Starfish
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Maven
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: 26
Jan 11 02 1:06 AM
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Hello. This is my first post to Hotel Womb. I'll gladly check in at the 'Welcome' thread but this thread caught my eye first!
I, too, was 'indoctrinated' to the Church
officially
via GAF, like as was mentioned above. What did it, exactly? I can't say for sure; like any great album or band, the overall effect is one greater than the mere sum of its components. To quote Peter Gabriel, it's "only some sort of magic that a name would stain."
I acquired 'Starfish' during its heydey back in '88, and and in early '92 acquired 'P=A' out of
"wonder what these guys have been up to"
curiosity more than anything. Both were OK to my ears -- which tend to bend toward rich guitar and bass work one can sink one's sonic teeth into anyway -- but at that point still the Church was only on my "B"-grade playlist -- I wasn't a fan. (Not that I'm some anal-retentive audiophile, keeping lists! It's just a fitting metaphor). When GAF was in its era, and "Metropolis" was on the radio and MTV (! seems surreal now), I wasn't persuaded enough to go out and buy it.
I think one's favorite albums reveal themselves in their own sweet time, when one is ready for them. This is different for each of us, obviously. But GAF has / will always have a particular resonance with me. Listening through it today, it still takes me on quite a tour, beyond and beneath the pits and plateaux under the laser.
Back to '92. I picked a used CD of GAF, figuring that it may be interesting to fulfill a trilogy of Churchism in my "'B'-list."
Then, upon giving it the obligatory, attentive New-Acquisition Audition . . . the world changed to me, just a little bit. The Church had just jumped onto my "A" list-- like an electron jumping its shell and sparking off a photon in the process. There was more depth, much more than the surface pretended, what with the pithy "Metropolis" lead single and the pix of the band members with their hair all mugging on the album-cover. Depth to dive into! And it was sonically a bit richer than 'Starfish' and warmer than the chilly P=A.
It became one of my favorite albums then. It still is, even though it can fairly be said with benefit of hindsight that its production
is
a little undercooked and dry -- not in the "stripped-down" sense of Starfish, but it sounds a bit too compressed, like a bit of a mastering-stage rush job. Still, the Songs, the realized Ideas -- shine through.
Some examples:
"Pharaoh", seething and solemn, at once ancient beyond Ancient with its drones and rhythms, yet so modern in its conciseness. I was surprised Arista even let them get away with this lyric!! There must be
something
to a band that's able to slip this bitter, sobering bit of medicine past the coked-up Armani-and-ponytail overlords. The closing near-whisper
"with boredom"
is the quantum leap -- breaking the structure of the verse (a sin in Commercial Rock(tm)) and spinning the whole lyric. The weeping grown men don't even know they're being mocked, as SK leans in closer to you, the listener, his confidant, letting you in on the joke that he's pulling over on them. One of my favorite Church tunes, and a lyric I avariciously wish that I could have written (as if!).
"Monday Morning," more poison in a perfume atomizer. A sweet little melody, loping meter, and dainty guitar that belies the darkness of the lyric underneath. Missed opportunities, blown chances, a want to go back to when things were better, before the Omens of Trouble -- flesh blood and brick, came true. Dualty is another no-no in Commercial Rock(tm); anything that's not totally surface in nature is surely too deep for the 18-to-35 AOR target audience, right? A (twisted) smiley ending segues with delicious contrast into . . .
"Russian Autumn Heart" -- a genuine full-throttle rocker! MWP takes the wheel for a spell and spins up a lost of dust for us, like he did with "Spark" last album. More and more Aspects of the Church reveal themselves -- this band is more than just the ethereal UTMW and P=A dreamers they first seemed to me to be.
"Disappointment" -- Pure mood, a great match of lyric and music, and a counterbalance to "Monday Morning". But now it's the Morning After, and you cannot lift your head. The key changes to Melancholy Minor as the chorus comes in and you remember that you're late for an appointment with . . . ? . . . oh, no. It's all come crashing down!. Pure mood transport. Effective, and affecting.
"Transient" -- Things pick up and sober up a bit, but with a minor-key, solemn approach. "Out into the cold grey daylight", as Peter Hammill once said, and you realize that all is in motion, that Monday Morning is gone forever, and that what is here now is only here for now. My favorite Koppes offering.
Now, it's late afternoon, and the sun is going down. Five o'clock, fade away . . . and with a gorgeously yearning, plaintive bit of
ratiug cirtcele
matched against forward acoustic 12-string, "Laughing" bows. This is one of my all-time favorite tracks, not just one of my favorite Church tracks. It's happy-sad, cruel-kind. One of SK's more surreal lyrics, the
tone
of the tune delivers the meaning more than the words do. It comes at you sideways and from a great (internal) distance. (-- another Commercial Rock(tm) sin!! If it's not totally obtuse, as subtle as a rubber mallet, it won't sell!) It's later and you're wiser, managing a wry smile as you get a glimpse of how your life has been going, is going, and will be going, having just realized the utter Transience of it all. You understood it all along, you just didn't know it. I still don't know what the hell the lyrics amount to, but I still get it (or, it gets me). (I shudder to think of the vinyl edition of GAF sans "Laughing" -- how could that album function??)
I got into GAF -- and extended its experience further with the Russian Autumn Heart CD single (one of my most prized CD's) -- in the summer of '92, when I spent my first ample time away from Home (I was 21 that year). I had a gig with a band on the Jersey shore, and listening to GAF recalls poignant moods and memories. Not sentimental, but literally very mood-y; a capturing of Moments that descended and lingered then, full of essence, like an excellent portrait. Late summer and the walls of the apartment in which I stayed were indeed Fading Away, and there were many Disappointments whereby I longed for it to be Monday Morning again, which could never be.
Relatively, in the context of the Church discography, GAF is a bit of a misfit, sure -- as mentioned above, indeed, an AntiStarfish -- but it casts its own kind of spell which caught some of us, me included. It helped to approach it fairly without guile as to what the Church "is". But even though now, ten years later, I have much more solid Opinions (which no doubt I'd like to join in sharing with you) on that matter, back when I got, got into, and was gotten by GAF, I was onto something profoundly more than what it merely appeared. It still is.
--Lt.
A guitar by itself rules nothing.
Only by skillful manipulation does it come alive
.
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