Liverpool is the second and final studio album by British band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in October 1986. Produced by Stephen Lipson and mixed by Trevor Horn, the album showcases a heavy rock sound in contrast to the synth dance tone found in its predecessor, Welcome to the Pleasuredome. The recording sessions would be marred by the radical change in musical direction creating tension within the band.
The album received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial disappointment compared to its predecessor, but it charted at number 5 in the United Kingdom and was a modest success in other countries. It would be supported by the lead single “Rage Hard”, a UK number 5 and number 1 in Germany. Liverpool would be the band's final album as lead singer Holly Johnson would leave the band followed by a flurry of lawsuits from ZTT.
Johnson was distant from the band during the sessions and was unhappy about the album's focus on rock over dance.[7]Jill Sinclair, Horn's wife and one of the ZTT founders, later alleged that Johnson had been uncooperative and absent for most of the sessions.[7] According to Nash, Johnson's was preoccupied with the serious illness of Wolfgang Kuhle, then Johnson's boyfriend, but he did not tell the band.[8] Johnson's distancing and disinterest came to the point that the band members concluded he was "finished and were in the market for a new singer".[8] They invited Duran Duran singer Simon Le Bon but he declined, Pete Wylie was also approached, but Johnson eventually remained with the band and completed Liverpool.[8][9] The session studio recordings were made in Ibiza, Holland and London.[10]
The album's production was handled by Trevor Horn's engineer Stephen Lipson, who urged the band to play their own instruments on this album (Horn having replaced many of the band's performances and arrangements with his session musicians or his own performances on Welcome to the Pleasuredome). According to Nash, the band was given contradicting information, with Horn considered as a producer or executive producer.[8] In the end Horn took over mixing it on which "spent a whopping £500,000 (making £840,000 in all) tidying it up".[7][11] The band was so much in debt that they had to sell at least a million copies to start earning "a penny".[8]
Liverpool features a heavier rock sound than its predecessor. Frankie Goes to Hollywood have not released any more studio albums since Liverpool. The cover photo was different depending on what format was purchased (LP, cassette, or compact disc).
The album was a commercial disappointment compared to the band's previous effort, though it charted generally high at No. 5 in the United Kingdom and Germany, No. 7 on the Austrian and Swiss music charts and No. 8 in Norway. It produced the top 5 single "Rage Hard" (No. 1 in Germany), top 20 single "Warriors of the Wasteland" and top 30 single "Watching the Wildlife". By March 1988, the album had sold around 800,000 copies.[7] On 20 June 2011 was released a 2xCD reissue including session recordings, mixes and covers of David Bowie, the Doors and Rolling Stones.[10]
In the 80s and 90s album received poor critical reception. The Rolling Stone Album Guide wrote: "Like most of the era's one-hit wonders, the group did make a second album, though God only knows why anyone would want to hear it."[5]
Alex S. Garcia writing 2.5/5 review for AllMusic considered that "on many accounts, Liverpool can be considered as an improvement over its predecessor", that being shorter duration and almost the same quality of all songs, and "the production is impeccable ... worth a listen if you like the band or have an interest for 80s music—of which this is not such a bad sample".[2]
Paul Lester in BBC review of 2011 reissue noted how "many of the [original] tracks are straight hard rock/metal, with the lavish sonics and orchestral pomp typical of the ZTT label dropped on top", and that the reissue is "a superb repackage of what remains one of the great anticlimaxes in pop".[10]
Steve Howe, who played on the album, said in a 2023 interview, "I just was hoping so much that Liverpool [...] would [...] make a meaningful dent in the [...] success of the band because it was just great."[12]
