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

Before Hollywood is tricky though. I like it almost as much as Liberty Belle but when it comes to picking individual tracks it's harder to pick standouts.

That Way, or nothing at all

another song with a killer McLennan opening line

Yes, I think there are standouts on that album!

Think it's harder to pick from the Forster songs on that one. What are the favourites? I think Ask and By Chance for me.

MAKE MEEEE LAH-SSST

The caretakers kept, he's to be fired soon...

Yes, On My Block is the one that's made a late entry for me.

Lot of great endings to songs on Before Hollywood. That Way, On My Block, the title track... all just kind of circling away around a repeated lyric. I love it.

"Before Hollywood" itself is particularly good for that IMHO. It's almost like three distinct songs go by before they lock into the final "they'll do they can to hold you doooown" chant. It nevertheless feels like it's all building up to that.

Er, "do WHAT they can".

Is it a breach of etiquette to open polls to people who are not yet ILXors? I kinda feel like mentioning it on the long-standing GB forum.

Go for it, I say: the solo tracks poll in particular could do with a good number of people across all the albums.

Opening ILX to people who are not ilxors seems like a good idea in general to me

Haha! I posted to said forum. Or it entered moderator queue, at least.

Still plenty of time, but mine is presently the only data in my little solo work spreadsheet. Save ILM from a countdown of my own oddball selections!

Anyone who wants to make a list should be able to make a list.

I suspect a moderator squashed my forum post. Anyway...

Does anyone actually like "Cut It Out"? I can't quite bring myself to listen to it, even for this exercise.

I really love the harmonies/backing vocals leading into the chorus, but then the chorus itself ruins the momentum and falls flat. I definitely don't agree with Robert that it's the worst song they ever did though. Not when River Of Money exists.

Ha! I don't mind "River".

I think I said elsewhere that I'm not even that fond of "Right Here". It too sounds a little like it's waiting for the chorus to be fleshed out IMHO. But it's not hard to imagine a slightly different Tallulah (without Craig Leon tinkering, for starters) which is the best thing ever. Today side 2 sounded like possibly their best half-album as it is!

In other news this process has clarified for me that Forster's Calling From a Country Phone still stands up rather well. It's officially on my LPs ballot now.

Ah, my forum post was published. Greetings to any go-betweens.org.uk messageboard folk who may have followed the link! :)

(xp) I bought it at the time and didn't think much of it but it's pretty good.

Forster's album of cover versions, I Had A New York Girlfriend, will be on my LPs ballot. He seems much more comfortable collaborating with other people - and in this case with other people's tunes - than as a solo artist.

I'm tempted to think that Forster needed McLennan more than McLennan needed Forster: McLennan seemed comfortable in carving out a post-split solo career (plus work with Jack Frost + The Far Out Corporation), whereas Forster's best work after 16 Lovers Lane definitely came in the re-formed Go-Betweens albums. I was surprised that I've got more McLennan tracks than Forster tracks in the solo poll so far, although McLennan was obliviously much more prolific (sometimes at the expense of quality control).

Strongly disagree with that conclusion, for Danger in the Past and The Evangelist serve as refutations.

I've never gotten into any solo Robert. Maybe I'll give him another listen this week.

A good moment to say how much I enjoy Songs To Play, which I've only listened to since this poll started. Lighter than The Evangelist but Let Me Imagine You and I Love Myself (And I Always Have) are pure Robert.

I had gone into this assuming I was mainly a fan of the Forster songs, but the more I dig in, I'm realizing that I might actually be Team McLennan.
(also, full disclosure: before typing the above sentence, I always thought his name was McLellan. so what do i know.)

You don't have to choose!

that's good because i have trouble telling them apart

Oh man, Tallulah is WAY better than I remembered

I hadn't listened to any of the solo albums before this poll. They're all kinda whizzing by, without catching much of my attention. "Demon Days" is a great song, that one's stuck. I'll skip that part of the poll & try to work my way in off the results, I guess.

XP, so does christgau:

McLennan's workaday singer-songwriter chops and Forster's low-pitched demo-style near-recitative were so short on recognition factors that even fans had to concentrate to figure out who was at the mike.

The Liberty Belle album makes it pretty easy to distinguish.
Forster sings Spring Rain
McClennan sings Ghost and the Black Hat

Tallulah has always been my favourite, which I consider 'perfect', discounting the fact that Cut It Out begs SKIP ME and Someone Else's Wife is a momentum-killer

The last minute of "Someone Else's Wife" is good, the rest of it is possibly worse than "Cut It Out".

Wait, people have trouble telling their voices apart!??

Yeah I don't get it.

I don't get the trouble distinguishing the Cars' singers either.

"Someone Else's Wife" is one of Mclennan's best songs. Tallulah stinks of sex.

I don't hate Someone Else's Wife at all, just unconvinced by its placement

in general, i know that mclennan is a bit more theatrical, forster a bit flatter and talk-y. it usually takes me a bunch of listens to figure out who is who though.

especially since they have lots of moments where they switch roles (e.g. dive for your memory for forster, cattle and cane for mclennan)

Distinguishing the Cars singers is at least a little bit challenging, if you don't know who is doing what.

Seeing as I started paying attention when they'd fairly recently disbanded, things like "Easy Come, Easy Go" and the chorus of "Every Hour God Sends" (which seemed like actual hits if one listened to JJJ at all) served as handy reference points for McLennan-ness. Not sure I knew they even had a second singer until I realised "Spring Rain" was also by the Go-Betweens!

I used to think I Just Get Caught Out was Grant. But he is quite Grant-like on it, isn't he?

^ I can hear that!

I think I'm mainly slow to realise it's McLennan circa SMAL where one mostly expects Forster to be singing. (Even on a McLennan composition, in the case if "Your Turn, My Turn".) And on several slightly shouty early '80s outtakes with a call and response type of thing.

Had no idea Your Turn, My Turn was a Grant song with a Robert vocal! I had trouble telling them apart at the start, but it's quite clear now. Grant's melodic and warm even when he's talking, Robert is thin and desperate.

Speaking of which, I've been listening to the single version of Man O'Sand To Girl O'Sea a lot. What a performance. You can hear the sweat dripping off him.

Having only heard 16 LL and Liberty Belle, I have no clue who sings what, but I also haven't really tried to discern. "Quiet Heart" and "Streets of Your Town" are McLennan, right? Had a similar problem with the Cars for a while, but now the difference between Ocasek and Orr is clear as day

Is it a breach of etiquette to open polls to people who are not yet ILXors? I kinda feel like mentioning it on the long-standing GB forum.

i actually did do this for the Boo Radleys poll. i got one whole person from the bravecapatin board to actually submit a ballot but the thread did get some responses:

http://www.bravecaptain.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3203&sid=0b0cc72c838823bad2fcabbaf69eb7ef

*note i was actually a regular on that board so i didn't feel like i was breaking etiquette on that board when i posted the thread. i also heard Martin Carr took interest in the poll but don't know for sure...

Aaah, okay, cool.