Gold Afternoon Fix by The Church

Gold Afternoon Fix, the Church's sixth album, arrived in April 1990 with a lot riding on it: it was the Sydney band's second record for Arista in America, and it was supposed to turn the success of 1988's Starfish into something bigger. Waddy Wachtel produced, and Steve Kilbey's languid voice and bass drift through the familiar haze while Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper weave their guitars into shimmering, psychedelic-tinged filigree.

"Metropolis" is the standout, a brooding, glittering single that went all the way to the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The label pushed hard, but for all the effort the record never broke through to the masses, and it stands as a lush, slightly weary coda to the Starfish era.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.