''Persia'' is the fourth

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

by the Australian

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band the Church, which was released in August 1984. It was the follow-up to their earlier 1984 EP '' Remote Luxury'', and continued in a similar stylistic vein. The material from both five-track EPs was collected for international release on a compilation album, also called '' Remote Luxury'', later in 1984. In 2001, EMI Australia released another compilation album, ''Sing-Songs//Remote Luxury//Persia'' (see also, '' Sing-Songs''), which had remastered versions of all tracks from each of the three EPs, in their original running order.

Background

The Church released two extended plays in 1984, '' Remote Luxury'' in March and ''Persia'' in August, but only in Australia and New Zealand. Both EPs reached the Top 50 on the

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

Albums Chart. Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...

(ARIA) created their own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back-calculated chart positions for 1970–1974. Most of the tracks on ''Persia'' were written by lead vocalist

Steve Kilbey Steven John Kilbey (born 13 September 1954) is an English Australians, English-Australian singer-songwriter and bass guitarist for the rock band The Church (band), the Church. He is also a music producer, poet, and painter. As of 2020, Kilbey h ...

. Compared to their third studio album, '' Seance'', the atmosphere was lighter and less gloomy. The band's trademark guitar sound was complemented by the keyboards of

Craig Hooper Craig Lincoln Hooper (born 23 November 1959) is an Australian musician who was a core member (with Dave Mason) of indie rock band The Reels (1977–1992), and was in bands The Mullanes (the initial incarnation of Crowded House), The Church ( ...

(from

the Reels The Reels was an Australian rock band which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976. It disbanded in 1991, and reformed in 2007. Its 1981 song " Quasimodo's Dream" was voted one of the top 10 Australian songs of all time by a 100-member panel ...

), who joined as an auxiliary touring member.

Reception

Evan Cater of

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 ...

observed that "it manages to draw from the best qualities of neo-psycheldelia and pop-rock without succumbing to the genres' respective pitfalls. It is atmospheric without being spacey or formless, catchy without being superficial, and mellow without being lethargic". Australian musicologist

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the '' Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

deemed it "excellent", noting that it "yielded such radiant Church moments as 'Constant in Opal' and 'Shadow Cabinet'".

Track listing

# "Constant in Opal" (

) – 3:28 # "Volumes" (

Marty Willson-Piper Marty Willson-Piper (born 7 May 1958) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter best known as a former long-time member of the Australian psychedelic rock band The Church. He joined in 1980 after seeing an early gig where they were perform ...

) – 4:02 # "No Explanation" (Kilbey) – 3:52 # "Violet Town" (Kilbey) – 3:28 # "Shadow Cabinet" (Kilbey,

Peter Koppes Peter Koppes (born 21 November 1955) is an Australian guitarist, best known as a founding and almost-continuous member of the independent rock band The Church. He is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing mandolin, drums, piano, and harmonica. ...

Richard Ploog Richard John Ploog (born 29 October 1962) is an Australian drummer, songwriter, producer and singer who was a member of rock band The Church between 1981 and 1990. Ploog also drummed for Beasts of Bourbon in 1983, Damien Lovelock in 1988 and with ...

, Willson-Piper) – 4:18

Personnel

;The Church *

: lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards *

: guitars, backing vocals *

: guitars, backing vocals, lead vocal on "Volumes" *

: drums, percussion ;Additional musicians *

: keyboards * Leon Zervos: sound effects ;Production work * Engineer: John Bee * Mastering: Don Bartley at EMI

Studios 301 Studios 301 is an Australian recording studio and is both the longest-running professional recording studio in the southern hemisphere and the largest studio complex in Australia. History The studio was founded in 1926 under the Columbia Gra ...

, Sydney * Mixer: The Church, John Bee at EMI Studios 301, Sydney * Producer: The Church, John Bee, recorded at EMI Studios 301, Sydney in June–August 1984

References

{{The Church 1984 EPs The Church (band) albums