Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (album)

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Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
Killing Joke Brighter Than A Thousand Suns Cover.jpg
Studio album by Killing Joke
Released November 1986 (1986-11)
Recorded Hansa Tonstudio, Berlin, Germany
Genre Post-punk, new wave, gothic rock
Length 41:17 (LP), 60:32 (CD)
Label E.G.
Producer Chris Kimsey, Chris Tsangarides, Stewart Levine
Killing Joke chronology
Night Time
(1985)Night Time1985		 Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
(1986)		 Outside the Gate
(1988)Outside the Gate1988
Singles from Brighter Than a Thousand Suns
  1. "Adorations"
    Released: August 1986
  2. "Sanity"
    Released: October 1986

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns is the sixth studio album by English rock band Killing Joke. It was released in November 1986 by record label E.G.

Release

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns was released in November 1986 by record label E.G. It was released on vinyl, cassette and CD, with the CD and cassette versions containing three bonus tracks. It reached number 54 in the UK Albums Chart.[1]

The album was remastered and reissued in 2007 with Chris Kimsey's mixes in place of Julian Mendelsohn's, which appeared on the original release. The reissue also features extra bonus tracks, including "Ecstasy", a rare B-side from one version of the single "Adorations". The verse riff from "Ecstasy" was reused two years later on the track "Obsession" from Killing Joke's next album Outside the Gate.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 2/5 stars[2]
PopMatters 6/10[3]
Sounds 3/5[4]

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns has received a generally less-than-favourable response from critics.

In his retrospective review, Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote "The unexpected success of Night Time and new commercial pressures clearly came to bear – Chris Kimsey's production, effective on that earlier album, here combined with Julian Mendelsohn's mixing to result in too often blanded-out album rock throwaways, perfect for blasting on highways and little else."[2] Adrien Begrand of PopMatters wrote "Without question, 1986's Brighter Than a Thousand Suns marked a sharp decline in quality, many viewing it as a complete betrayal of Killing Joke's signature sound, but more than 20 years later, it's surprising how well parts of the album hold up."[3]

Track listing

Original vinyl version

All songs written and composed by Killing Joke (Jaz Coleman, Kevin "Geordie" Walker, Paul Raven and Paul Ferguson). 

Side A
No. Title Length
1. "Adorations"   4:39
2. "Sanity"   4:44
3. "Chessboards"   5:47
4. "Twilight of the Mortal"   4:12
Side B
No. Title Length
1. "Love of the Masses"   4:54
2. "A Southern Sky"   4:25
3. "Wintergardens"   5:24
4. "Rubicon"   7:06
Original cassette version
Side A
No. Title Length
1. "Adorations"    
2. "Sanity"    
3. "Chessboards"    
4. "Goodbye to the Village"    
5. "Wintergardens"    
6. "Twilight of the Mortal"    
Side B
No. Title Length
1. "Love of the Masses"    
2. "A Southern Sky"    
3. "Victory"    
4. "Exile"    
5. "Rubicon"    
Original CD version
No. Title Length
1. "Adorations"   4:42
2. "Sanity"   4:45
3. "Chessboards"   5:51
4. "Twilight of the Mortal"   4:15
5. "Love of the Masses"   4:40
6. "A Southern Sky"   4:39
7. "Victory"   7:11
8. "Wintergardens"   5:24
9. "Rubicon"   7:03
10. "Goodbye to the Village"   5:26
11. "Exile"   6:38

Personnel

Killing Joke
Additional personnel
  • Dave Kovacevic – synthesizer
Technical
  • Chris Kimsey – production
  • Thomas Stiehler – engineering
  • Julian Mendelsohn – mixing
  • Chris Tsangarides – production on "A Southern Sky"
  • Bob Kraushaar – mixing on "A Southern Sky"
  • Stuart Levine – production on "Victory"
  • Glen Skinner – engineering on "Victory"

Charts

Chart (1986) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart 54[1]
U.S. Billboard 200 194[5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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