And Then You POLL Me: The Go-Betweens Tallulah Poll

"Bye Bye Pride" = one of the greatest songs of anything ever. So... that!

― mr.raffles, Sunday, 19 August 2012 21:45 (9 months ago) Permalink

Is there a more convincing reenactment of what it feels like to love and be loved?

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 19 August 2012 21:46 (9 months ago) Permalink

indierock4eva alert

― da croupier, Sunday, 19 August 2012 21:51 (9 months ago) Permalink

McLennan was so goddamned good at this kind of stuff.

― mr.raffles, Sunday, 19 August 2012 22:09 (9 months ago) Permalink

i just get caught out

― ciderpress, Sunday, 19 August 2012 23:05 (9 months ago) Permalink

gonna vote for 'caught out' to ease the bye bye pride onslaught

― like a sunrise (electricsound), Sunday, 19 August 2012 23:08 (9 months ago) Permalink

Well, let me put in a good word for "You Tell Me" and its great rhythm guitar hook.

And McLennan's solo in "Spirit of a Vampyre"

And everything about "Someone Else's Wife," especially the bridge.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 19 August 2012 23:17 (9 months ago) Permalink

The House That Jack Kerouac Built is my favourite Go-Betweens song.

― Kitchen Person, Monday, 20 August 2012 03:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

you you, you you

― nerve_pylon, Monday, 20 August 2012 03:43 (9 months ago) Permalink

Killing me to have to choose.

― that's not my post, Monday, 20 August 2012 05:41 (9 months ago) Permalink

so many worthy choices but "Right Here" is a sentimental favorite and such a beautiful song

― da croupier, Monday, 20 August 2012 14:12 (9 months ago) Permalink

I KNOW YOU'RE THIRTY TWO BUT YOU LOOK FIFTY FIVE

On one hand I think "That's the way to persuade somebody: reminding them how they've aged" but on the other he's so damn persuasive

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 August 2012 14:13 (9 months ago) Permalink

And with a video like this how did it not cross over.

― da croupier, Monday, 20 August 2012 14:16 (9 months ago) Permalink

Amanda's a looker.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 August 2012 14:19 (9 months ago) Permalink

they're all lookers in that video, although i never warmed to RF's blonde phase, tbh

― nerve_pylon, Monday, 20 August 2012 14:26 (9 months ago) Permalink

this might be the best go betweens album, and yet it also has their worst song. could probably vote for any of the others! tough.

― tylerw, Monday, 20 August 2012 15:00 (9 months ago) Permalink

In my mind I always hear "Right Now" being covered by Andrew WK...

― queequeg (peter grasswich), Monday, 20 August 2012 16:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

"You Tell Me" is the one that got me into this band, so that one.

― Euler, Monday, 20 August 2012 16:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

This is definitely my favourite Go-Betweens album. So many possible contenders, but I have to go with 'Right Here' for sappy reasons.

― emil.y, Monday, 20 August 2012 16:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

sappy reasons are the best reasons!

― ciderpress, Monday, 20 August 2012 16:35 (9 months ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Sunday, 26 August 2012 00:01 (8 months ago) Permalink

as Forster said

C'MON C'MON
C'MON C'MOOON

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 August 2012 03:12 (8 months ago) Permalink

I went with "I Just Get Caught Out," which isn't a masterpiece, but still retains a cool breeziness Forsterishness. I think "Right Here" will sweep this, and who can blame it? I think this is my least favorite of the six original Go-Betweens albums (though 16 Lovers Lane is a contender for that, too), but they're all classics.

― crustaceanrebel, Sunday, 26 August 2012 07:07 (8 months ago) Permalink

which is your favorite?

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 August 2012 11:52 (8 months ago) Permalink

THTJKB over Bye Bye Pride

― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Sunday, 26 August 2012 12:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

on the road with a bad crowd

― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Sunday, 26 August 2012 12:45 (8 months ago) Permalink

Don't overlook "Spirit of a Vampyre" (excellent solo)

Ryan Maffei wrote a terrific post two weeks ago for One Week//One Band:

Directly after, a careening moped, a Forster on fire, rainy-night punk perfect for soundtracking all brands of forward propulsion. Though the bass is thick, the guitars relentless and percussive and the drums real, the artiste invites a few slick touches he doesn’t even sound begrudged by: little guitar textures echo and swathe as the band’s newest lovers coo supportively, the shadow of a moral presence lurking in view of Forster’s lusty prowl . “I Just Get Caught Out” is stunning; a surge of nightshade passion from a person too self-conscious and image-concerned to write himself a real showcase for his tenderness like he did throughout the last album. Something as exacerbated his paranoia and he disguises a carnal encounter invigorated by a sense of risk with a veil of moonlit espionage from closed inn to closed inn

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 August 2012 12:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

"Bye Bye Pride" or "You Tell Me."

I once had a cat I named Tallulah.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 26 August 2012 14:08 (8 months ago) Permalink

http://24.wikia.com/wiki/McLennen-Forster

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 26 August 2012 14:10 (8 months ago) Permalink

voted clarke sisters

― tylerw, Sunday, 26 August 2012 14:10 (8 months ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Monday, 27 August 2012 00:01 (8 months ago) Permalink

"Bye Bye Pride" is great, though I'm surprised "Right Here" didn't take it. I suspect that most Go-Betweens polls would be dominated by McLennan songs, even though I think Forster is the better and more consistent writer. More original, too.

I've been a Go-Betweens fans since the Postcard single - I remember a friend and I puzzling over the strangeness of "I Need Two Heads," sitting in my bedroom in front of the stereo and neither of us having any clue as to where such a record could have originated (Australia, we knew, but what sort of Australia is that?) It didn't even make sense within the (then) odd framework of Postcard. So I've collected everything of theirs since - solo and as a band. Some time ago, I thought I'd make a compilation of solo McLennan work and I started putting it together. Soon I realized . . . I don't like this stuff. I mean, I could hear quite a lot of it as fan Go-Betweens songs. But the production was uniformly vapid. Without Forster, the edges were so rounded off that it was unlistenable. I recall seeing McLennan with Jewel opening, at a small café in Chicago, which was a decent show (both performed with no one else accompanying, though they did a few songs together.) On record though, Forster solo pandered to the worst aspects of his work - the fluffy, sentimental approach, the overt desire to sell a lot of records, and so on. I could make a similar case for Forster - his solo records could sometimes use some warmth and a little more breeziness - but I'm forgiving of that particular approach.

In any case, I sold all my McLennan records once I saw that they'd sound better in my imagination than they ever would coming through my speakers. And I've never regretted it. I knew Grant, sort of - we hung out several times and shared a love of some obscure music. I miss his kindness and the perfect foil it made for Forster's aloof nature. But I think musically, he did just one thing well - a really genius pop song every year or two or three, but with a shockingly high percentage of weak tunes.

― crustaceanrebel, Monday, 27 August 2012 01:17 (8 months ago) Permalink

Forster was by far the most penetrating writer going back as far as 1988. I'll credit McLennan for showing him how to use melody for ruminative ends.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 August 2012 01:20 (8 months ago) Permalink

yet McLennan recorded the better solo albums. Go figure.

I should poll Horsebreaker Star.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 August 2012 01:21 (8 months ago) Permalink

yet McLennan recorded the better solo albums. Go figure.

Disagree with this entirely! On some level, they may be more listenable, but that's in the sense that they're similar sounding and insubstantial. I think you can dig deeper with Forster's solo stuff, and I reckon a lot of it is weirdly underrated - check out "Loneliness" for a good example.

― crustaceanrebel, Monday, 27 August 2012 01:26 (8 months ago) Permalink

Disagree with this entirely!

+1

― the dilettante escape plan (electricsound), Monday, 27 August 2012 01:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

I like all of McLennan's solo albums a lot! Don't know if I've ever had any solo Forster save the covers album. Though come to think of it, the last one was really good.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 August 2012 03:28 (8 months ago) Permalink

One of my prized shirts:

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 August 2012 03:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

i' d put danger in the past up against any of the go-betweens releases -- wouldn't do that for any of mclennan's solo recs (though they do have their moments).

― tylerw, Monday, 27 August 2012 03:40 (8 months ago) Permalink

^ yep. also, The Evangelist

― nerve_pylon, Monday, 27 August 2012 03:42 (8 months ago) Permalink