Liverpool Deluxe finally in the shops

So after months of no clear answers as to what would happen with this Elemental release, ZTT and FGTH finally get Liverpool Deluxe Edition into the shops
below is a review of the set that is in my opinion a true feeling of the album in its revised form.
For all the sprawl that was “Welcome To The Pleasuredome”, it was an impeccable sonic journey that would inevitably be tough to top. With “Liverpool”, Frankie Goes To Hollywood chose to make it a much briefer and more focused affair. Eight tracks deep, it was un-questionably a grower. Aside from “Warriors Of The Wasteland”, “Rage Hard” and to some extent “Kill The Pain”, it’s a mellower affair. There’s a cohesive quality about the album as a whole which makes it feel a bit like a concept album, without an intellectual concept. More of a sonic concept.

“Liverpool” opens rather mysteriously with a little build up to the sonic wallop that “Warriors Of The Wasteland” ultimately delivers. At the time, WOTW was a surprise with it’s very guitar oriented sound. “Rage Hard” carries on with it’s own powerful sonic palette, though with less of an emphasis on guitar. As the album moves along, each track mellows a bit more than the previous. By the time you get to the last track, “Is Anybody Out There?”, things have mellowed considerably. Perhaps that was the concept? Probably not the best way to structure a very anticipated album.

With hindsight it’s obvious why this album never was a hit. For fans of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, there was a lot of baggage that came with being so attached to “Welcome To The Pleasuredome”. “Liverpool” was structurally and sonically (at least seemingly so at the time) so different. Its heavy hitters were packed on the first half and the further you went into it, the mellower it got. It was a tough pill to swallow for teenage fans who had a pre-conceived notion of what a new FGTH album should sound like.

Having had years to digest this album though, it’s clear that it IS every bit the album that WTTPD was. For someone without such a strong opinion of what a FGTH album should sound like, there’s no reason not to give this one a good go. It really is an incredible album from beginning to end.

*this review is taken from http://www.excursionsinmusic.com/travel-guide/frankie-goes-to-hollywood-liverpool-1986/ and is completly independant from any thoughts of the blogger.