Before POLLywood - The Go-Betweens - Artist Poll #98 - VOTING THREAD

Gonna get a ballot together tomorrow, somehow

me too!

BUMP!

Scrolling up, there are quite few people early in the thread I've not heard from, ballot-wise. There is still time. You know you wanna! :)

just submitted, could've tinkered forever.

Sent!!

Far too late for effective lobbying, but here's another relatively obscure McLennan contribution that's on my ballot. (Possibly the last chance to mention it as I doubt we'll see in the rollout. LOL) As far as I can tell, this went completely unheard until the '00s reissues. Which is a shame because, for one thing, the middle eight does weird things to my brain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BZhBWaqqZ8

Oh that's a gem, it'll be on my ballot too. It amazes me this and Newton Told Me got discarded while songs like Slow Slow Music made it onto records. How good an album could Spring Hill Fair have been otherwise?!

I didn't have time to listen to more than two of their albums so I'll just be following the results rather than voting. But I am getting better at telling their voices apart so there's that. Forster seems more pitchy

XP:

Okay, setlist.fm suggests they played it live at least twice in late '83. So not completely unheard. #FactCheck

I almost said the same thing re "Slow Slow Music"!

'Pitchy' is not unfair, I'd say. :)

I don't even mean it pejoratively - I like a lot of singers with character like that

The Evangelist was well-represented in my solo ballot.

I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that you have a fair bit of company in that part of my spreadsheet.

Yeah, my list was very Evangelist heavy. It was hard not to vote for every song from it.

As you said upthread, it's a special record.

Will send a ballot tomorrow... life has been getting in the way

Cool. 20-something seems a respectable voter pool. I think we're a whisker under that at this instant, with several still promised.

Sorry - I will get mine in tomorrow!

voted :)

just working on my ballot, will have it in by tomorrow!

a particular g-bs delight, forster's delivery of 'frank brunetti' on darlinghurst nights

can i still send a ballot? i wouldn't be ready before thursday.

Okay, can you make it relatively early on Thursday? eg. before midday GMT?

a particular g-bs delight, forster's delivery of 'frank brunetti' on darlinghurst nights

― devvvine

Love this! My all time favourite delivery of his has to be, "listen Jack, don't you know, I'm a star" in Twin Layers Of Lightning.

Bru-ne-tti.

With the ambient rollout now over it's time to try to start wrapping this up. After 3+ weeks substantial extensions can get a bit tedious, IMHO.

I've received 24 or 25 ballots. As far as I know we're mainly waiting for SA, that's not my post and perhaps alex in mainhattan if he can be quick! I'm not entirely sure which "tomorrow" the former two meant, come to think of it! :)

Also, Alfred and Jazzbo ranked the (GB) albums very early in the thread. I'm tempted to record them as ballots! What say you?

I sent you a ballot, though.

Yep. But no albums, IIRC!

Voted

oh!

sent

Thanks folks!

My ballot will be sent this evening (UK time). Will that be OK?

Oooh, whoops, you're one I overlooked upon re-scanning the thread earlier!

Okay, yep!

Actually let's try a more concrete deadline of 11:59PM Wednesday 3rd. GMT <-- Yep GMT, not Hawaii time, or whatever.

That's Thursday morning for me. Hopefully I can then just do final data entry and start the rollout late Thursday/early Friday [my time] when ILX is somewhat active.

FYI, Thursday is a holiday in the US (though not sure how many american GB fans there are, to be fair).

The 4th of July? Since when has that been a holiday?

This didn't occur to me! Thanks. Weekends are rarely fantastic either. Maybe I should just squeeze album results in some time before the weekend. And save most of it until Monday.

Save it all til next week imo

I’ll have mine in before the hard deadline.

I could’ve done the Go-B’s section by memory but this solo album stuff is taking some time. Aside from Inferno, I hadn’t listened to any of it in forever. Going through it now it is kind of mind blowing listening to In Your Bright Ray and Warm Nights and then realizing Friends Of Rachel Worth was what came next. Obviously there’s the total indie rock production happening on that record, but also the songwriting from each of them is so different, and better in my opinion. It really gives credence to their claim of writing songs together and giving each other comments throughout the process. Forster seems to steer McLennan into a less corny Party Of Five direction and McLennan adds badass guitar parts that really take Forster’s songs up a notch.

I do think Grant was shooting for proper VH1 mainstream success during his solo career, hence the occasional Party Of Five-ness

I've come out of this poll obsessed with The Friends of Rachel Worth.

By the way, the three tracks from Oceans Apart do sound much better and less compressed on the Quiet Heart compilation.

And, from the Go-Betweens board:

Posted on Friday, September 22, 2017 - 08:32 am:
On Robert's Facebook : "Yes, the work on 'G Stands for Go-Betweens Volume 2 1985-89' has begun. Monasteries are being combed for late 80's Go-Betweens photo sessions, tape vaults are being catalogued, shadowy people are breaking their silences. There is a way to go - but we are on our way."

Posted on Tuesday, November 07, 2017 - 09:40 pm:
I asked Robert last night in Berlin about Vol. 3 and Oceans Apart and he told me they WOULD remix it for this...

http://go-betweens.org.uk/chatroom/messages/1/22562.html?1551428519

Rad. Oceans Apart is nearly unlistenable to me because it's so slammed. It is not of my albums list and none of its songs make an appearance on my songs list!

that's insane.

I've never dismissed an album because of rotten production; there's too many bangers on OA.

Hahaha I think we may have discussed this before in another Go-Betweens thread. You love that album, right? I hate listening to the mix of it. I still like it, but it's easily my least favorite out of all of them. And I don't understand the love for it. I don't see how the songs are anywhere near as good as 16 Lovers Lane songs, which to me is what Oceans Apart is kind of going for. But to each their own!

Just took a dip into the Oceans Apart, to make sure I didn't need to put some of these bad boys in my poll submission. Whew... that is the sound of digital clipping. That lead guitar on Darlinghurst Nights. Holy crap. Horrendous sound.

For the record the following Oceans Apart songs made my long list, but not high enough to make my top 30:
Born To A Family
Darlinghurst Nights
Boundary Rider
Finding You
Here Comes A City

Oceans Apart is easily top 3 for me, I struggled to not over-represent it on my ballot. For years I thought I'd ripped my sister's CD at super low quality, but listened elsewhere for this poll and, well, I guess it's always playing through tracing paper and/or from the radio. But knowing it can't be fixed helped me make amends with the sound. Beginning a career with the parched Send Me A Lullaby and ending with an album so drenched and sibilant makes a certain kind of sense.