Priest=Aura

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Priest=Aura

Studio album by The Church
Released	March 10, 1992
Recorded	301 Studios, Sydney 1991
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	64:52
Label	Arista Records
Producer(s)	The Church and Gavin MacKillop
All Music Guide link
The Church chronology
Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)	Priest=Aura (1992)	Sometime Anywhere (1994)

Priest=Aura is the eighth studio album by the Church, and is widely considered one of the band's finest efforts. In dramatic contrast to the somewhat stark production of its predecessor Gold Afternoon Fix, the album was heavily layered in dense guitar arrangements, keyboards and atmospherics. Sharing much in common with the recent shoegazing movement, the recordings moved the band away from the commercial mainstream and largely established their reputation as a moodier, psychedelic art rock piece.

Arriving in the midst of the budding grunge scene and resulting shake-up of the music industry, Priest=Aura made little commercial impact. Left largely without any promotion by Arista, the album's success was limited mostly to modern rock charts. A number of high profile (most notably in Rolling Stone) reviews criticizing the album as "pretentious" contributed to it sinking below the public's radar. Over the years, however, it has earned a sort of cult status among fans and critics, with many citing it as their favorite among the band's releases.