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

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

http://i64.tinypic.com/cm9z4.jpg

The Go-Betweens are perhaps more 'niche' than many subjects of ILM polls, but they have generated a fair bit of ILX chatter. Admittedly some of that has had a "what's the appeal?" flavour. Maybe we can get slightly closer to an answer to that question.

You are invited to submit any or all of the following:

(1) TOP GO-BETWEENS TRACKS - up to 30, ranked or unranked

Any track released under the Go-Betweens name.

(2) TOP SOLO / SIDE-PROJECT TRACKS - up to 30, ranked or unranked

Anything else released by any enduring Go-Betweens member, preferably where they are credited amongst the songwriters. The most obvious of thse include solo Robert Forster and Grant McLennan material, Tuff Monks, Jack Frost, Cleopatra Wong and Far Out Corporation.

(You could also make a case for Brown or Willsteed's soundtrack work, for instance. But probably not much of Vickers' or Pickvance's bass-playing work in other combos. And I trust you'll agree that, given the fleeting associations, including tracks by the likes of the Apartments, etc, would be casting the net too widely.)

(3) TOP ALBUMS - GO-BETWEENS AND SIDEPROJECTS - up to 10

ANY of the albums! Go-Betweens, side projects and solo efforts are all welcome. There are at least 25 contenders. (I'm inclined to exclude 1978-90, Bella-Vista Terrace, Intermission and Quiet Heart given their 'best of' vibes.)

Ballots to vaticanroulette AT gmail DOT com, with your username. A GB-related subject line would also be helpful.

DEADLINE: provisionally 30th June

Here's a list of known Go-Betweens tracks and (separately) the more obvious side-projects tracks. (Feel free to highlight crucial things I've overlooked.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KiKylSYrCxGbiLL7G6uF4BnB5Hgczgpxz7zbHCiBfac

I propose a familiar scoring regime that worked okay last time I did this.

For both of the tracks ballots:

RANKED: 40,36,33,30,28,26,25,24,23,22,21,20,19,18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2.

UNRANKED: 17 points for each item. (ie. a 30 track unranked ballot adds up to much the same number of total points as a ranked one. Be aware that points will not be scaled up for shorter unranked lists.)

For albums:

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1.

Typos already. Noooooo...

And yes, I *am* saving up "draining the POLL" for later.

aPOLLogy accepted!

Really excited for this one, although my ballot will be fairly basic. Thankful for the extended voting period!

I should do this, but be warned there will be nothing later than 1988.

"Caroline and I" will make my ballot but yeah me too (excited to re-listen to the post-reunion stuff though)

It's POLLED and dusty in here

sorry I'll stop

This is the canon band I have the biggest blind spot with (practically 100%) so while not contributing I'll be following avidly.

My god, I hadn't thought of those masterful puns!

Anyone with a passing affection for any era, GBs or solo, is encouraged to vote in whatever (sub-)poll(s) might appeal. I have no idea what sort of turn-out to expect, tbh.

It's nice that the word 'poll' has two Ls in it. Did anyone ever ask the band about that album title rule of theirs?

Looking forward to this though it's reminded me that I've barely listened to Send Me A Lullaby. It's not on Spotify (in the UK at least) but I see someone's put it all on YouTube.

I think I'll find space for 2 or 3 of the post-reforming tracks, certainly He Lives My Life.

I only heard 16 Lovers Lane for the first time a month ago but was blown away and intend to get to their other albums. Not sure I'll be able to listen fast enough to vote in the poll but definitely looking forward to the results either way!

oh dear god

I hope I see "You Tell Me" and "I'm Alright" on a few ballots.

prob gonna vote for at least 6 tracks from 16 lovers lane, so 'i'm alright' has a pretty good shot

Controversial opinion: Forster was sharper and tauter as they reached the end of their first run. McLennan reveled in mush, sometimes exquisitely.

You Tell Me has always been a favorite. We once had a cat named Tallulah.

oh awesome, been drip feeding myself go-betweens albums over the past couple of years; basically only listened to oceans apart last month, will be repped heavily on my ballot

bright yellow, bright orange originally came with a 4 song ep one of which was a total gem ("locust girls"). dropboxed it in case anybody's interested since it doesn't seem to be on youtube
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrymcplbrdihbpn/03%20Locust%20Girls.mp3?dl=0

[Oooh, lots of XPs. Cool]

I too have a soft spot for "Caroline & I". The late tracks I finding myself thinking about between listens are often those that felt like unassuming little sketches a decade ago. "The Mountains Near Dellray" for one. Sometimes "Lavender". Didn't see that coming.

I got the impression the double-L thing was a coincidence up to perhaps Spring Hill Fair or so, before becoming a game. Though I may be misremembering.

by now it's consensus that Oceans Apart is one of their very best, right?

I'd rank them:

Before Hollywood
Tallulah
Oceans Apart
Spring Hill Fair
Liberty Belle
16 Lovers Lane
The Friends of Rachel Worth
BYBO
Send Me a Lullaby

Albums:

16 Lovers Lane
The Friends of Rachel Worth
Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
Oceans Apart
Tallulah
Before Hollywood
Spring Hill Fair
Bright Yellow Bright Orange
Send Me a Lullaby

You Tell Me is terrific. The only song I really love off Tallulah, though The Clarke Sisters comes close.

I'm fascinated to see how this poll turns out as other than Streets of Your Town and Cattle & Cane I've no real idea what'll be in the top 10.

Not sure either of those songs will make my top 10 but they seem to be the most often referenced.

curious what the best regarded solo/side project stuff is, only know (and love) danger in the past

Nothing touches Danger In The Past for me, though Warm Nights is good.

Thanks for posting Locust Girls, outdoor_miner - it's great. Wish it had been on the album.

Forster's The Evangelist is as wonderful as any Go-Be's album.

McLennan's Horsebreaker Star is its match.

I quite liked Forster's Inferno released in March.

Controversial opinion: Forster was sharper and tauter as they reached the end of their first run. McLennan reveled in mush, sometimes exquisitely.

This is definitely not controversial in my household.

Does anyone dig McLennan's In Your Bright Ray? I seemed to see it everywhere but never knowingly heard any of it until the past year. The guitars are pleasingly warm and gooey but I'm still not sure that many of the songs really add up to much.

omfg I'm so excited for this poll

oh cool, this is a new poll! I assumed this was a revive on a poll that had happened in 2007.

Does anyone dig McLennan's In Your Bright Ray? I seemed to see it everywhere but never knowingly heard any of it until the past year. The guitars are pleasingly warm and gooey but I'm still not sure that many of the songs really add up to much.

― Nag! Nag! Nag!

The production -- lumpen, without flair -- does the songs no favors. The title track and "Malibu 69" aren't bad.

I love "In Your Bright Ray", it's what it says on the tin. But, yeah, "Horsebreaker Star" (the full version, not the cut-down US release) is impeccable.

"The Evangelist" is such a unique album, coming out in the wake of Grant's death. It's both a celebration and a mourning of him.

Excited for this poll.

A couple of solo tracks worth hyping

Robert - Baby Stones (though I like the Go-Betweens version better that the original solo version): https://youtu.be/_0s1IiZlD9k

Grant - Easy Come Easy Go: https://youtu.be/sJ9096U897k

"why not do the searching around here and try to involve me?" always makes me giggle a little.

Giving these guys a proper listen today, it's striking how much they improved as they went along -- it's not often that a post-reunion album is a serious contender for best album in a band's discography (whereas the 70's stuff is pretty unremarkable).

I also suspect that people get so rabid about them partially because they never reached their proper level of recognition -- like there's a certain obligation to correct the historical record.
If "Streets of Your Town" was as big a hit as "Under the Milky Way", I'm not sure they would have quite as many ILX cred points.

what

I understand how their fans weaved the band's pathetic sales into the band's mystique -- this was going on in the early '90s if not before. But, uh, fans would've greeted "Streets of Your Town" as a possible hit marvelously -- and it did get airplay.

Look, i'll be the first to admit that it's not as fun to stan for a band once everyone else knows about them.
In any case, I am pretty excited to learn more of their back catalog via this poll.

Thanks for doing this one, Nag! Longtime Go-Betweens fan, never noticed the LL thing before. (Typical.) I hadn't heard about Go Between Bridge, either. Really cool. It has an endearing Wikipedia page. I'm sure my ballot will be lopsided with Forster. First I'll be giving it all a listen. I want surprises.

It's nice that the word 'poll' has two Ls in it. Did anyone ever ask the band about that album title rule of theirs?


Yes, and they said it was unintentional until it was pointed out to them.

My favourite reunion era cut is 'Darlinghurst Nights' from Oceans Apart.

A favourite McLennan solo cut that didn't make it onto Intermission is 'Simone and Perry', the opening track on Horsebreaker Star.

I like "Simone and Perry" too, desite sounding like the theme song for a 1995-era- WB show like, say, "Party of Five."

Does anyone dig McLennan's In Your Bright Ray?

I love all his solo albums, though the one I gravitate to most is "Fireboy." "Horsebreaker Star" has some great songs, but I find it kind of slick in a, yeah, Party of Five sort of way. But I still like it.

Ha -- Fireboy I can't get into much: too many tracks built around title hooks and not much else.

One secret reason for suggesting this poll was to give myself a big incentive to come to terms with GM's solo stuff. Horsebreaker Star was the only album I heard in full in the 90s, and only a handful of times. A year ago a list of Solo GM Songs I Can Remember Well might not even have been as extensive as the Intermission tracklist. It's surely been my strangest blindspot of all.

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.

there's an uncompressed (or at least less compressed) OA out there.

Some day my prince will come...

hit me up at tywilc AT gmail and i'll send it over

Ballot sent. Had 70 tracks on my long list. Heck of a time whittling it to 30. Had to cut Spring Rain!?!? Probably a bad decision.

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

Already said it, but if anyone has a rip of that less compressed version please help find a way for me to get it. Don't really want to wait 5 years for the box set

Wow, the Quiet Heart masterings sound a million times better! Thank you for the tip.

Grrr, the app ate my rather long post...

I think I will go ahead with an albums rollout this week. Certainly not not tracks though.

So, alex in mainhattan, feel free to ponder tracks ballots further while I fiddle with albums data. I'll close the gate on the latter in a couple of hours. I really need some of the numbers to stop jiggling around as near-obessive re-sorting of preliminary numbers will shortly drive me bonkers. :)

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

same! i was lazy and didn't do a ablums ballot but woulda been my #1

Ballot sent! Hopefully 'I'm alright' for time?

Yep. All fine and dandy.

I think that's ~28 submissions now. About 100 tracks mentioned in each of the tracks ballots, IIRC. And 20-something different LPs.

Okay, apart from alex in mainhattan possibly submitting tracks in coming hours, it's time to close this.

I've finalised the album votes. I'll roll that out on or around Friday.

Late ballots have fleshed out the solo/side-project results nicely. They certainly warrant a fairly major countdown in their own right, something that seemed less certain early on.

Heck of a time whittling it to 30. Had to cut Spring Rain!?!?

Oh wow. That's too much. Tracks I've been regretting excluding: One Thing Can Hold Us, Rare Breed, Too Much of One Thing.

give me four hours and i am done, sorry for being so late.

Sent!

I can get one in v shortly as well, on a similar timeframe

Looking forward to this!

LOL. Okay, Simon H, but be quick. Album numbers are already set in stone now as I shall roll them out very soon. Tracks only at this point. You'll have to be the very last.

sent!

:)

Okay, absolutely 100% closed now. I think that's a total of 31 submissions.

Incidentally, a fair few voters self-indentifed as 'lurkers' or very occasional posters. The rollout thread should be a safe space for de-lurking, I think. Gratuitous TOO LOWs are actively encouraged, for starters. :)

'self-identifed' obv. I this swear this app somehow increases my already high rate of typos.

RESULTS:

Draining the POLL for you - ILM artist poll #98 - The Go-Betweens