After touring their previous album, Gold Afternoon Fix, with new drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, The Church returned to Sydney's Studios 301 to commence work on new material. With lowered commercial expectations and less pressure from Arista Records, the atmosphere was more relaxed than the fraught L.A. sessions for their previous two albums. Bringing in British producer Gavin MacKillop to supervise the sessions, the band began to improvise the framework for the next set of songs. The use of opium and, for Kilbey, heroin, saw the material take on a more expansive and surreal quality, while Daugherty's occasionally jazz-like approach on drums brought a fresh change. Titled Priest=Aura, from Kilbey's misreading of a Spanish fan's English vocabulary notes, the album contained fourteen tracks, several over six minutes long. At nearly 65 minutes, it was their longest release so far. With song concepts derived from cryptic, one-word working titles, the lyrics leaned towards the abstract and esoteric. Emphasising free association and undirected coincidence between music and motif, Kilbey declined to define their meanings. Sonically, the interplay between Koppes and Willson-Piper dominated throughout, especially on tracks such as "Ripple," "Kings," and the epic, aptly titled "Chaos", whose lyrics were a reflection of Kilbey's unsettled lifestyle at the time. Upon its release on 10 March 1992, Priest=Aura had less chart success than any of its predecessors, although it peaked in the ARIA Albums ChartTop 30. It was given a mixed reception. Rolling Stones Ira Robbins called the album "rich in texture" but with an "arid atmosphere". The band went on a sold-out tour of Australia, as Kilbey prepared for the birth of his twin daughters, but after the final gig founding guitarist Peter Koppes announced his departure. Increasing personality conflicts, especially with Willson-Piper, who had been moonlighting with UK band All About Eve, combined with frustration over The Church's declining chart success had made the situation intolerable. Koppes would eventually return to guest with the band on their 1996 album Magician Among the Spirits and rejoined permanently in 1997. Despite its muted reception at the time of release, Priest=Aura is considered by both the band and fan base to be an artistic high point. In 2011 the album, along with Untitled #23 and Starfish, was played in its entirety on the band's 30th Anniversary "Future, Past, Perfect" tour. In his 2014 autobiography, Something Quite Peculiar, Kilbey calls it their "undisputed masterpiece". The original 1992 Australian release was bundled with the 1991 rarities albumA Quick Smoke at Spot's: Archives 1986-1990. A 2-CD remastered edition was released in Australia in 2005. The second disc included the tracks "Ripple ", "Nightmare", "Fog", "Feel ", "Drought" and "Unsubstantiated". In 2011, Second Motion Records re-released the album as part of their 30th Anniversary Remaster series, with the bonus tracks "Nightmare" and "Fog", in a cardboard sleeve with a booklet containing lyrics, photos and sleeve notes by Marty Willson-Piper.
Track listing
All songs written by Kilbey/Koppes/Willson-Piper/Daugherty except "Mistress", by Kilbey/Koppes/Willson-Piper
