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

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.

My preliminary tracks list is evenly split between Forster and McLennan, which seems right for this band where all their good albums are split 50/50.

I wonder how available those solo albums were in the '90s? I remember SPIN loving Horsebreaker Star, but did even Columbia House carry them?

I have scoured many, many thrift store CD bins over the years but I've never come across any group or solo work, in Canada at least.

To come back to Baby Stones, which I adore, this abandoned discography page mentioned a 1991 Forster/McLennan version of it, which piqued my interest. Tracked it down (is actually 1992) and it does list a different running time to the Danger In The Past version (4:30 v 4:08) so am intrigued. Has anyone heard it?

https://i.imgur.com/Uvx7pA5.jpg

Oh, and if anyone has the Baby Stones B-side, The Land That Time Forgot, and thinks it's worth listening to, would love it if they'd be able to Dropbox it.

I had "The Land That Time Forgot" here, it turns out!

https://gofile.io/?c=xluFEZ

Thank you!

xpost Give Fireboy another shot! I love "Surround Me," "The Day My Eyes Came Back,""Dark Side of Town," the epic "Riddle in the Rain" (pretty dark stuff, could it be about drugs?) ... lots of it! The one I remember most from "Horsebreaker" is "Girl In A Beret," which has a pretty good hook.

I thought Riddle In The Rain was about Amanda, with that verse where he makes reference to each member of the first four-piece Go-Betweens line-up: "a reluctant bitter feminist", "a boy with thin wrists", "a tall man with a gift and i'd never been kissed"

"a reluctant bitter feminist

never any love lost between McLennan and Lindy Morrison.

"Horsebreaker Star" also has some tracks with Syd Straw on backing vocals, which in and of itself shows Grant's outstanding taste.

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.

It's like that for me, too. So many of McLennan's songs, both group and solo, have gorgeous chords and textures but few of the kind of melodic or lyrical hooks that readily stick. On Go-Betweens albums, although RF's songs are what I remember best, GM's provide a sort of lush sound bed out of which RF's can emerge with their engaging directness.

In 'Grant and I', Forster explains that, for him, 'Riddle in the Rain' is all about Amanda:

"Most of the songs on the two albums are about Amanda, and those that aren't sound like songs trying not to be about her. It's extraordinary how much she possessed him, and how public he was willing to make his need for her known. (...) 'Riddle in the Rain', sequenced last on 'Fireboy', was his line in the sand. He is still trapped forever - 'But I'm still a long way / I'm not even close / Tell me who do I pay to get rid of your ghost?', as each chorus laments - the tone in the verses swinging between resignation and sarcasm, an attitude her carried in life that surprised people expecting the sincere romantic. With nothing to lose he turns on his subject and the past. 'You rock and roll schoolgirl / You said the mechanism was fixed / You let your lips curl / It's funny how some things stick.' The swoon of the tune has made him reckless. Was this the last twenty-four hours in their home? 'A genuine proposal / A shifting of skin / Then a quick disposal to the cut-off bin.' There's even a fascinating passing take on The Go-Betweens before Amanda joined - on Lindy, Robert, myself and Grant in order: 'A reluctant bitter feminist / A boy with thin wrists / A tall man with a gift / And I'd never been kissed.' The song, played with a guitar strum and vocal I knew so well, sounds like it was recorded live and late at night, Grant dying to get this six-minute-plus epic that he knows is brilliant - an exorcism, a cry of freedom - out of himself and into the world. It's one of his greatest songs, and with a minimal arrangement: Dobbyn lets him go, only trailing an organ to the songwriter's guitar; Grant bursts into focus."

Oh Wow! I am very excited for this one.

xpost there you go then, I bought the book a few weeks ago but must get reading it right away.

As I said upthread I've never heard the reunion albums, so I'm concentrating on the 'classic era'. One of my first impressions on re-listening to those albums, leaving aside the first and "Before Hollywood", is what a succession of ill-judged duds Grant McLennan inflicted on us poor Go-Bs fans! There's one, more often two per album.

I wonder if River of Money will get any votes.

I've got no problem with Grant on Liberty Belle or 16LL myself - like Before Holywood they're pretty much flawless albums to me: even the slighter subs work in context.

Songs not subs.

I hate that "Palm Sunday" song and he overdoes the schmaltz on 16LL - for my taste anyway.

As I said upthread I've never heard the reunion albums,

This is a mistake which you have time to correct. Oceans Apart is a triumph for all concerned, including McLennan, and TFORW is a strong comeback in its own right.

As for 16LL, "Quiet Heart" (better use of the "With or Without You" chord progression than "With or Without You") and "Streets of Your Town" rank among his best.

Love SOYT, cannot abide "Quiet Heart". Each to their own though.

I don't like Quiet Heart at all either, and think I'll rank River of Money quite highly. It's weirdly one of my favourites - guess I like him better when he's sad.

During my first phase of being a fan I also ignored the reunion albums other than a cursory listen to a few tracks once, but more recently I've corrected that and have decided that artistically, it might be the best reunion of any band ever. For so many reasons Grant's death is a tragedy, I hope it's not too selfish to bring up the fact he was producing songs as good as Finding You and Poison In The Walls right near the end and how sad it is there would be no more...

(I take there is not a decent sounding version of Oceans Apart I can illegally download somewhere? Like a vinyl rip?)

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