The Polyester Embassy

Background

Before joining Madison Avenue, Cheyne Coates was working as a choreographer and singer in Melbourne. Coates met producer and writer Andy Van Dorsselaer (aka Andy Van) in a dance club. Van was the founder of the Vicious Vinyl record label and had remix credits for Tina Arena and CDB. Van Dorsselaer had won an ARIA award for his production work on "Coma" by Pendulum.

The duo started working together mainly as writers and producers in 1998. Madison Avenue recorded their first song, "Fly", featuring Kellie Wolfgram as the vocalist. However, Coates sang on the group's breakthrough single "Don't Call Me Baby", as Van Dorsselaer preferred her version, even though the song was initially used as the guide track for Wolfgram.

The duo continued to work on their debut album through 2000, which was eventually released on 2 October 2000, eleven months after "Don't Call Me Baby". Coates spoke out about her time in the band and the process of making The Polyester Embassy, as well as their unreleased second album, after the band's split in 2003, saying that the duo was poorly organized and late in delivering material, blaming it on them being quickly thrust into the spotlight after the success "Don't Call Me Baby".

"I think the problem was that no one was in control, it was just a mess. We were always on the back foot, we were always late in delivering everything. When it's your first time around, you don't have a clue. But it was a good learning curve. We didn't even have a manager in the beginning so we were dealing with record companies ourselves, which is a bad idea."

Critical reception

Tim Sheridan from Allmusic gave the album a negative review, saying "While it offers some decent dance grooves, this slick production does little more than rehash disco clichés without the sense of fun applied by bands like Deee-lite. Perhaps if the duo of Cheyne Coates and Andy Van didn't take itself so seriously, the project might not seem quite so empty." He highlighted "Who the Hell Are You" as an album pick.

Commercial response

The Polyester Embassy was a success in the band's native Australia, peaking at #4 and was certified Platinum. However, the album failed to match its success internationally, peaking at just #74 on the UK Albums Chart, and #63 on the Japanese Albums Chart.

Track listing

All tracks written by Andrew Van Dorsselaer and Cheyne Coates, except for "Reminiscing" written by Graeham Goble.

Singles

A fourth single was released by the band, a cover of "Reminiscing", originally by Little River Band. The song was included only on the Japanese edition of the album, therefore elsewhere it was a single-only release. In Australia, the song continued the bands top 10 streak, peaking at #9 and achieving Gold certification.