Customer Reviews

Liverpool

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

VH-1 tried to get FGTH back together in the first series of "Bands Reunited" in early 2004. Holly is not only alive and well, but he's as snitty as he ever was -- after leading everyone on for a week or two he declined to perform in the reunion at literally the last minute, leaving Mark, Paul, Nasher and Ped standing around in the studio. I've always felt that Liverpool was unjustly overshadowed by the chaos in the band around the time of its release. There's nowhere near as much fluff as on Pleasuredome and some of the non-single tracks are just brilliant. Steve Lipson produced the hell out of this album and as a result it rewards deep listening by fans of the all-out ZTT production sound.

This album got short shrift once upon a long ago. FGTH made much more of a splash and had most of their commercial success with 1984's "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome," but the band came apart so quickly that many people didn't notice this 1986 effort. That's a shame, because this is a very good album. It's far more straightforward then "Pleasure Dome;" there's none of the extra-long or extra-short tracks or crazy intros and interludes that laced the first album together. The concept here focuses in from the hedonistic and apocalyptic overtones of "Dome" to the nature of man in the modern world. And `focus' is a key word; whereas the first album was all over the place stylistically, this is just eight tight, well-crafted songs with an alternative-pop sheen provided by producers Stephen Lipson and Trevor Horn. If you enjoyed "Relax" and "Two Tribes" but never gave this album a chance, you might want to reconsider. And the Bowie cover that's been added as a bonus track (if you buy the right version) is just about worth it all by itself.

If Frankie's debut album 'Welcome to the Pleasuredome' had many high's and low's, their second and last album Liverpool was more even in quality. Liverpool is more conventional. Although it lacks hits like 'Two Tribes' and 'Relax' it neither has the space-fillers and boring chit-chat of the overlong'Welcome...'. Featuring a string of good songs, my favourites are 'Watching the Wildlife' and 'For Heaven's sake'. It would have been interesting if Frankie wouldn't have split up and too see where they would have gone from Liverpool. This album deserves a listening to anyone who likes Frankie's chart toppers.

Very good album. I give it 4 stars because of the debut album Welcome to the pleasure dome which was more original and fresher. But this album is very underrated. Beside the hits: Rage Hard and Warriors there is a lot on this album to keep you listening.

Like the moving ballad Is anybody out there whinch is sing by Holly Johnson with such incredible ease, beautiful! And then there is Maximun Joy a very danceable song but in a different way then Relax was. Maximum Joy is also the title of the forthcoming Best of which is gonna contain a lot of remixes. They really haver tried to make this album different and it worked quite well, Lunar Bay is a bit experimental and not like other bands. Even today the sound original and not typical eighties.

If you like Frankie in a little rougher version than they were on Welcome check this album out. Good!

Okay, so this isn't another 'Pleasuredome' - but then again, how can you be expected to top such a debut? And thank God Frankie didn't try to make an album like their first one. 'Liverpool' consists of 8 songs with no funny tags or conversations squeezed in between them. It kicks off with 'Warriors Of The Wasteland', at first atmospheric and then aggressive, and continues with the pleasantly bombastic 'Rage Hard', arguably the best song on the album. The contents of the disc are actually quite varied. There is guitar rock on 'Kill The Pain', a sequencer/synth orgy on 'Maximum Joy', and lush orchestrated sounds on 'Watching The Wildlife'. The album closes with the atmospheric 'Is Anybody Out There?' which is just as moving as 'The Power Of Love' off their debut. If you can manage to separate the music from all the things that happened during the recording (Holly and the lads' constant fighting about which direction the album should take and Trevor Horn driving everybody bonkers) this actually is an album of very enjoyable songs produced in the typical perfectionist, larger-than-life Horn/Lipson fashion and performed energeticly by the band. Too bad that the Frankie era didn't last, but it sure as h*** was fun.

'Liverpool' was Frankie's follow up to 'Welcome...' but is has often been ignored. Holly Johnson said he didn't like the music and critics have accused it of being over produced. I would say that that the music is as good as the previous effort and that the production is excellent. The first three songs are massive rock numbers with the bass playing to the fore. Things mellow out thereafter but this does not mean the album drops in terms of quality. For 'Heaven's Sake' is my personal favourite track, a song asking what have we done to the world. If anybody likes 'The Power of Love' then the last track, 'Is Anybody Out There' should be just as appealing. This album is Shorter than 'Welcome' because it does not have the incidental music bit between songs but it is just as enjoyable a listen.

I really like this album. I was excited to get all the remixes.... But ZTT decided to mix them all together into one remix for warriors, one remix for whatever. I don't want a 20 minute remix of assorted mixes! Just frustrating. Like redoing the Propaganda album Secret Wish which was perfect, but they had to change it! Less is more kids! Makes me hesitant to buy others!

Over all it is a very good follow up album to Welcome To The Pleasuredome. THe band was already falling apart at the time so it never rally took off from a "hit" or "Marketing" standpoint.

If yo are downloading this be warned.. the volume is very low... I had to reproscess the album and crank it up about 50%

I bought the vinyl version of this album almost twenty years ago. Frankie had come and left Hollywood by then. Through the years, I kept coming back to it. And it holds up very well, for '80's new wave. "Maximum Joy" echos earlier Frankie Goes to Hollywood fabulously. "For Heaven's Sake" is stellar.

OK, everyone here is massive Frankie fan, and I also admit that the band had a great influence on me. "Welcome.." is the definitive dance album of the '80s. Two years after this enormous commercial and artistical success, the brilliant single "Rage hard" only increased expectations that the second albums would top its predecessor. Finally, "Liverpool" came as a let-down to many people. The band focuses on eight songs, but the problem is that there are a number of badly developed and uneventful tracks on this album. "Rage hard" is one of Frankie's best songs, with a very memorable and boombastic refrain. Apart from this flash of brilliance, it's often downhill. "Warriors.." and "Kill the pain" are fairly average '80s arena rock with shallow lyrics and large-scale production. "Maximum joy" and "Lunay bay" almost seem like filler, they have nothing to offer but aimless noodlings, just as the overly friendly and bland "Watching..", which didn't even make the top-20 single charts in Britian. The last two songs on this album fare better. The atmospheric "For heaven's sake" and the wistful "Is anybody out there?" cast an eye back on Frankie's career. Ironically, the production of "Liverpool" was even more expensive than that of "Welcome..", so the band and their producers obviously spent more time in constructing sounds than writing songs. The final product clearly pales next to the band's previous efforts, and although it does offer a few good songs, it will appeal to hardcore fans only. There's a digitally remastered version in existence which adjusts the slightly muddy sound of the original CD issue. It also contains two bonus tracks, extensive liner notes, and beautiful packaging.