"No Aphrodisiac" is a song by Australian band

the Whitlams The Whitlams are an Australian indie rock band formed in late 1992. The original line-up was Tim Freedman on keyboards and lead vocals, Andy Lewis on double bass and Stevie Plunder on guitar and lead vocals. Other than mainstay Freedman, the l ...

, released in December 1997 as the second single from their third album, ''

Eternal Nightcap ''Eternal Nightcap'' is the third studio album by Australian rock band The Whitlams, first released by Black Yak Phantom in September 1997. The album peaked at number 14 on the ARIA charts and was certified gold, and then triple platinum. Singl ...

''. The song peaked at 59 on the

Australian Singles Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

. The lead track was written by the band's founding mainstay, Tim Freedman, together with

Pinky Beecroft Matt Ford, known professionally as Pinky Beecroft, is an Australian singer-songwriter, performer and screenwriter. From 1997 to 2005 he was the lead singer and keyboardist for alternative rockers, Machine Gun Fellatio. His group Pinky Beecrof ...

(Matt Ford) and Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab (Glen Dormand): both from the band,

Machine Gun Fellatio Machine Gun Fellatio were an Australian alternative rock band, formed in 1997. They were well known for their provocative on-stage antics and humorous lyrics, as well as the musical merit of their songs. Their outrage-provoking name (coined by a ...

. It was produced by Freedman with Rob Taylor. "No Aphrodisiac" won Song of the Year at the

ARIA Music Awards of 1998 The 12th Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAS) was held on 20 October 1998 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. Presenters, including Democrats deputy l ...

. It was listed at No. 1 on their Hottest 100 for 1997. Former Australian

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Gough Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...

, for whom the band was named, announced news of their win on air. One of its B-sides is "Gough". Machine Gun Fellatio provided a re-mix of "No Aphrodisiac" for the remixes version of the single.

Details

"No Aphrodisiac" was written for Freedman's then-girlfriend, who was living in Melbourne, while he was in Sydney. He later recalled, "We were growing apart, not writing to each other so much... Pinky Beecroft and Chit Chat had just played me a demo of theirs, which consisted of very funny personal classifieds, and we used 6 lines of that to finish the song." One of the lyric lines is "truth, beauty and a picture of you", Freedman later explained "their role in the song is just to be comedic. I'm saying 'I miss you but the universe will turn me on in your absence'. Truth of course doesn't exist, and beauty is all." The single mix version adds more electric guitar and is almost a minute shorter than the album version. This version does not appear on the band's 2008 compilation album, ''

Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You ''Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You'' is the first greatest hits album by Australian rock band The Whitlams. It was released in August 2008 and peaked at number 3 on the ARIA charts. Upon release, Tim Freedman said, "I decided to leave a couple ...

'' – the title is a line from the lyrics – instead the album version was used, which was also the preferred radio version.

Reception

"No Aphrodisiac" won Song of the Year at the

and was also nominated for Single of the Year but lost out to

Natalie Imbruglia Natalie Jane Imbruglia ( , ; born 4 February 1975) is an Australian singer and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in the Australian soap opera '' Neighbours''. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing car ...

's cover version of " Torn". The track was performed by the band at a ceremony in Sydney before the Millennium. It was also performed live during the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's Jonathan Lewis felt it was "a melancholy, piano-driven song about long-distance relationships". According to

Bernard Zuel Bernard Zuel is an Australian music journalist. Zuel wrote for Fairfax Media newspapers ''The Age'' and ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' since 1992. He became their senior music writer and reviewer. Zuel is a judge of the Australian Music Prize a ...

of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'', it was "A ballad about infidelity, or even masturbation – 'there's no aphrodisiac like loneliness' – it became a national love-song request. The single was released independently by Freedman's own label, had no film clip, no commercial radio airplay and no marketing budget." ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said, "No Aphrodisiac is a demarcation in the Whitlams’ sound: gone were the boyish songs about mates and girls, replaced by melancholic, clever songs about being lonely and drinking too much (and girls). In a neat encapsulation of the band’s shift, Lewis even swapped his double bass for an electric bass halfway through the track."

Track listings

There are four releases of the "No Aphrodisiac" single, one that consists of different mixes of the lead track and three versions which have different bonus tracks as detailed below: CD-Maxi: BYO-E8 (C) / EAN 9398603201025 (14 December 1997) # No Aphrodisiac (single mix) – 3:32 # Winter Lovin' – 3:22 # 1995 – 4:44 # Charlie No.3 – 4:24 # No Aphrodisiac (edit#1 mix) – 3:28 BYO-E8 "No Aphrodisiac – The Remixes" (1998) # No Aphrodisiac (Single mix) – 3:29 # No Aphrodisiac (Room for your Dog mix) – 5:54 # No Aphrodisiac (

mix) – 4:23 # No Aphrodisiac (Headspace Caisidorpha mix) – 5:25 # No Aphrodisiac (Album mix) – 4:20 BYO-E8 (A) "No Aphrodisiac" (1998) # No Aphrodisiac (single mix) – 3:29 # Gough – 3:16 # Met My Match – 3:36 # Up Against the Wall – 5:28 # No Aphrodisiac (edit#1 mix) – 3:28 BYO-E8 (B) # No Aphrodisiac (single mix) – 3:29 # Where is She – 4:17 # I Make Hamburgers – 3:36 # You Sound Like Louis Burdett – 4:01 # No Aphrodisiac (edit#1 mix) – 3:28

Awards and nominations

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1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

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APRA Music Awards of 1998 The Australasian Performing Right Association Awards of 1998 (generally known as APRA Awards) are a series of awards held in May 1998. The APRA Music Awards were presented by Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and the Australasian ...

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Charts

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control 1997 singles 1997 songs ARIA Award-winning songs Songs written by Tim Freedman The Whitlams songs