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

why is John Willsteed on the cover of M&S?

I believe he contributed some peroxide to the recordings

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#8
ROBERT FORSTER - THE EVANGELIST
April 2008

Points: 68
Votes: 14
First-place votes: 0

If It Rains / Demon Days / Pandanus / Did She Overtake You / The Evangelist // Let Your Light In, Babe / A Place To Hide Away / Don't Touch Anything / It Ain't Easy / From Ghost Town

"I might make an album in three or four years, or five years. There won’t be one in two years, I know that. But I’m very happy to have The Evangelist as my last album for as long as possible. People will think well of me." - RF

Youtube audio track: Don't Touch Anything

That'll have to be the last one for now. Brain is insisting on sleep. I'll return soonish for the thrilling conclusion!

Big jump in points for The Evangelist, and a great quote from Robert.

Fucking good album.

otm

Big Star’s 3rded

the album is good but the cover is awful and looks very cheap and amateurish. i love the cover of SMAL, those drawings of the band members have got something very human to it.

Send Me A Lullaby and Before Hollywood have the only good album covers.

I've never had a strong association between the first three album covers and the music, because my first exposure to many of those songs was with the 1978-1990 compilation. Then for the actual albums, the late 90s Beggars reissues with redone "consistent identity program" cover art.

I would take issue with calling the Evangelist cover any more amateurish than many of their others, except that it does look like it was selected from a menu and assembled by a bot. Select popular background pattern A and trendy typography effect B. Insert photo X. Voila!

Kind of surprising, because I think of Forster as having a more sophisticated sense for things visual.

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#7
THE GO-BETWEENS - THE FRIENDS OF RACHEL WORTH
September 2000

Points: 90
Votes: 16
First-place votes: 0

Magic in Here / Spirit / The Clock / German Farmhouse / He Lives My Life // Heart and Home / Surfing Magazines / Orpheus Beach / Going Blind / When She Sang About Angels

"Rachel felt really natural – it wasn't like Robert and I had separate managers or any of that industry bullshit. We'd always wanted to record in America, too, so that was a real dream. I think it has a really mysterious, otherworldly, "lost" feel to it." - GM

Youtube audio track:German Farmhouse

I am in love with this album. In a way it reminds me of the Clientele?

xpost

This means that barring some heinous miscarriage, the remaining regular GB albums must fill the top seven spots. That's how I voted, but I also included BYBO in a Top 8. Wished I could have seen a way to make it less predictable. I thought Warm Nights might make a sentimental showing until I listened for the first time in probably 15 years. Eh, so much for that idea.

Then for the actual albums, the late 90s Beggars reissues with redone "consistent identity program" cover art.

https://i.imgur.com/vr1ukb3.png

Third time lucky?

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Yeah, those generic sleeves were atrocious.

Not a fan of the ‘Inferno’ artwork either, tbh.

I think that might be the only Go-Betweens release I didn't buy secondhand. I've added distressingly little to Forster and McLennan's royalties for someone with multiple copies of many of the LPs.

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#6
THE GO-BETWEENS - OCEANS APART
May 2005

Points: 103
Votes: 18
First-place votes: 2

Here Comes A City / Finding You / Born To A Family / No Reason To Cry / Boundary Rider // Darlinghurst Nights / Lavender / The Statue / This Night’s For You / The Mountains Near Dellray

"On this record, most of the songs -- the ones that I sing anyway -- are about isolation and trying to get out of that. Trying to feel again, trying not to be so cold, maybe, not to be a statue" - GM

Youtube audio track: The Mountains Near Dellray

Why highlight "The Mountains Near Dellray", of all tracks? Because I like it and [spoiler redacted]

I'd like to finish this section right now, but am mindful that it's quite late on the east side of the Atlantic. Any views on this?

I am in love with this album. In a way it reminds me of the Clientele?

― L'assie (Euler), Friday, July 5, 2019 3:00 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

That's a strong reference in my book. I don't really think of the Clientele & the Go-Betweens as being that similar. But I'm embarrassed to say I've never listened to Friends of Rachel Worth so maybe that's the one that ties them together.

I think Oceans Apart is my favorite of the later Go-Betweens albums

Last one now...

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#5
THE GO-BETWEENS - SPRING HILL FAIR
September 1984

Points: 146
Votes: 23
First-place votes: 0

Bachelor Kisses / Five Words / The Old Way Out / You've Never Lived / Part Company // Slow Slow Music / Draining the Pool for You / River of Money / Unkind and Unwise / Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea

"It's an album where we talked right from the start of Loaded or a White Album, where there would be different songs on the record, and I stand by that. I deny the allegations of scrappiness." - GM

Youtube audio track: The Old Way Out

This album has 4 of my favourite songs on it... but is sabotaged by two godawful Grant McLennan tracks.

Spring Hill Fair was the Go-Betweens album I started with. I love it but can count at least 3 other albums of theirs that I love more

XP: "Last one FOR now" rather.

I was kinda impressed by the performance of SHF (and its constituent songs) given that it seems a tad divisive. Only one other LP appeared one more ballots. (It was on 23 of 24.) It was no one's #1 though, not unexpectedly.

Admittedly, fifth place doesn't seem enormously impressive at first glance. :) I should clarify that it was also a couple of places higher for much of the voting period. This cluster remains fairly tightly bunched.

I broadly agree with Tom D, though possibly not on the specific "godawful" tracks. Regardless of the finished product, some of their best songs arrived in 1984 (including my #1) and I get an awful, awful lot of mileage out of the associated obscurities and alt. takes on the expanded issue and G is for Go-Betweens.

I totally love Spring Hill Fair, side one has some of Forster’s catchiest work, and basically the whole thing made my tracks ballot

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#4
THE GO-BETWEENS - TALLULAH
June 1987

Points: 148
Votes: 22
First-place votes: 2

Right Here / You Tell Me / Someone Else's Wife / I Just Get Caught Out / Cut It Out // The House That Jack Kerouac Built / Bye Bye Pride / Spirit of a Vampyre / The Clarke Sisters / Hope Then Strife

"We were sort of cursed. We had the engineer that we were using on Liberty Belle, Dicky Preston, and working with Dicky was good. We then went on to the next one and we were put into this horrible studio it was over a practice room or something. And so Dicky didn't do a good job I think on Tallulah, so it had to be rescued and remixed a little but which always sounds horrible but it actually worked out okay with Mark Wallis." - RF

Youtube audio track: Someone Else's Wife

I'll deal with the top three when it's less middle-of-the-night for a lot of you.

Well I agree with the top 3

Tallulah gets off to a bad start for me. In another, simpler arrangement I'd like Right Here, but while Spring Rain or the whole of 16 Lovers Lane have a effortless pop sensibility to them, here it sounds contrived and trite. Then You Tell Me soars before the album loses its way again.

OTM re 'Right Here'. I thought I was virtually alone in not really feeling it. It was only relatively recently that I realised I was letting that (and the almost unbearable 'Cut it Out') distract me from the fact that almost everything else is excellent. (Did I already say something similar on the other thread? Probably.)

“Cut it Out” is pretty bad. Did find myself listening it to the other night and trying to imagine how it might have sounded when written, without the production. The issue is, though, that it’s a pretty weak song to begin with.

Yeah! Not sure McLennan had as many spare songs that time around but even the eminently b-side-ish "Don't Call Me Gone" seems to offer more durable building blocks to work with.

oceans apart was my number one - been totally enamoured with it for a couple of months now

Crazy talk re "Right Here". Again, I think Robert more than holds up his side of the bargain on this album, he has to as Grant saddles it with a couple more duds. Glossy 80s production doesn't help.

There's no album where the divide is starker to me: Robert's songs are good to great and I don't care for much for any of Grant's (last two are OK, I guess)

Been listening to the extra tracks on the 2004 bonus disc for the first time. Love the lighter yet no less unsettling 'If I Was a Rich Man' version of The House Jack Kerouac Built, a song I think I've been underappreciating

Tallulah my #1 narrowly over Rachel Worth. The only song I don't like on Tallulah is "Cut It Out" and I may have voted for every other song on it.

Definitely my fave despite not being too wild about Cut It Out and Someone Else's Wife

They were fantastic live during the 'Tallulah' tour, with Amanda Brown really filling out the sound well. So my votes for the 'Tallulah' tracks are more for the way they sounded on that tour, especially 'Right Here'. 'Tallulah' was, however, the album that surprised me most (in a positive way) when I re-listened to it for the poll.

I think I had the most negative reaction to Tallulah when I first picked up all the '80s albums in the early-to-mid-'90s. It somehow sounded more dated 5 years after release than it does now. "Bye Bye Pride" was the obvious exception but I was already well acquainted with that bit of greatness. These days I'm way more likely to reach for it than 16LL. The track I rated most highly for this exercise was "The Clarke Sisters", apparently.

I didn't anticipate that "Someone Else's Wife" would keep coming up as a low-point. It's firmly in the McLennan Contributions That Don't Suck column by my reckoning, alongside "Hope and Strife".

Of course, since commenting on "Cut It Out" earlier it's been lodged in my head and I'm almost beginning to like it.

Hehe.

Probably time to post more results, innit...

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#3
THE GO-BETWEENS - 16 LOVERS LANE
August 1988

Points: 157
Votes: 20
First-place votes: 4

Love Goes On / Quiet Heart / Love Is a Sign / You Can't Say No Forever / The Devil's Eye // Streets of Your Town / Clouds / Was There Anything I Could Do? / I'm All Right / Dive for Your Memory

"I had trouble with 16 Lovers Lane for a long time. It wasn't until the late nineties that I recognised it for what it was - a pop record." - RF

Youtube audio track: The Devil's Eye

Oh, that's a surprise, I thought Top 2 for sure.

Yeah expected that to win. Really pleased it didn't.