Time to take a time machine back to the good old days of 1993 with Goldie's Last Day. PfR's second album shows much budding talent, both musically and lyrically, and also shows the band growing together spiritually. Listening to this album after having heard their later LPs, it's quite easy to hear how they were able to perfect a very unique sound. However, as this album is in the developing stages of their career, it has many flaws that their later works didn't have.

Goldie's Last Day starts off with a banjo solo, and then out of nowhere gives way to a heavy rock riff in "Walk Away From Love." The unique PfR sound is evident right off. This song leads into the melodic tune "By Myself," probably the best song on the album. As the album continues, there are a wide variety of styles, sometimes complementing each other, sometimes horribly clashing, but nonetheless, a great effort. From the acoustic "That Kind Of Love" (reminiscent of The Beatles' song "Blackbird") to the humorous, yet quite sad, song "Goldie's Last Day", to the song "I Wait For The Sun" which features portions from the Fifth Dimension's hit song "Aquarius", this album has its high points and filler moments. A lot of the songs are very well-crafted, while some of the others just lack the musical depth and luster of the others.

Some of the other cons of the album is that it sounds over-produced at times, and there are times when Joel Hanson's voice can get irritating (though at other times he, as well as Patrick Andrew, can turn out vocals that sound a lot like The Beatles). The album also has a very early-90's rock sound, so it takes a little getting used to at first. Minor criticisms aside, the album is relatively good. Make sure you stick around after the last song to hear the famous "gargling solo."

Review date: 9/17/03, written by Frank DiSalvo for Jesusfreakhideout.com