
What can one say...
After truly marvelling at how a band verging on near obscurity
managed to piece together a true sonic sound-scape such as
'Starfish', all a hardcore fan of Steve Kilbey and the boys could
do was to dream and imagine what kind of acoustic genius would
surface on their next release.
The most remarkable aspect of 'Gold Afternoon Fix' was how
truly UNremarkable it was, and is. In fact, the boys probably
took longer deciding on the title than they did working out any
of the songs comprising this 70-minute testament to how NOT
to take advantage of any 'lucky stars' blowing your way.
When I hear Steve sing "all those lucky, lucky stars we've been
blowing" on 'Frozen and Distant' I always think he's singing
about the band's decent into musical emptiness that surely
pervaded the studio during the making of 'GAF'.
We all know of the band's constant evolution, even in their
standard two-year intra-release period, BUT, what happened?
IMO, all Church fans could list the special reasons for their own
fascination with the band- for me, none of them can be found
on 'GAF'.
Sure, there are moments. As some of you have come to know,
I scratch my head sometimes wondering how certain filler
material sneaks in to turn an otherwise brilliant selection of
musical material into an album you're trying desperately to LOVE (see my
'Starfish' review). It seems as though the reverse almost
happened here- 'GAF' is almost all filler, with a smidgeon of
vintage church creativity thrown in just to ward off any chance
of boredom settling in. Sorry guys, you didn't get that right either.
We've all got our Church favourites, and we've all got our
opinions on what we'd change had we been behind the console. Lengthen a guitar solo here, throw a Rickenbacker in
there...
IMO, most of the 'GAF' material sounds rushed. Whereas you
can almost get a sense of the thinking that went into previous
releases (some more than others, obviously) 'GAF' seems so
thematically and musically simple.
Please, don't think I'm suggesting that 'complex' is what this
band is about or, that 'complex' is the band's signiture characteristic.
Apart from SK's voice, there's little here to suggest this is the
same band that gave us 'Starfish', 'Heyday' or 'Blurred Crusade'.
I recall reading that SK said "We were making a recording in a
place we didn't want to be, at a time we didn't want to do it.".
That's perhaps the best way to summarize 'GAF's level of creativity and feeling.
Keep safe, all. Fraulein.
