borrowed tunes

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May 17, 2005

go-betweens :: oceans apart

(buy)

I have a strange relationship with the Go-Betweens. I own almost all of their records, I really enjoy hearing every one of them, I occasionally walk around hummming their tunes, and yet I invariably forget about them when tallying up my favorite music. They're role-players. Solid, never calling attention to themselves.

They're a two-songwriter band of Aussies playing a very restrained and subtle form of bittersweet six-string pop. The melodies are delivered flat - just the mellifluous side of Lou Reed - and they don't go in for big choruses or drama. But somehow the tunes catch, worming their way into your head, begging for fourth and fifth listens. They're very well-written.

Oceans Apart is the third record in the second life of the band (the first having run from 1981-1988), and it's hailed as the first true return to form of this new phase. I don't necessarily agree with that - I loved the comeback disc The Friends of Rachel Worth, and the next one, Bright Yellow Bright Orange, had good tunes even if it was a little too listless (and listlessness can be a hallmark of this band).

Oceans does have the biggest production, and rocks as hard as you'll hear the Go-Betweens (which isn't much); the last two were barely-dressed folk-pop, and this time we're back to the lusher late-80s sound of the band (with an old producer from that era in tow). Some of the songs are among their deepest.

But what I haven't read in the reviews (which are all very positive), perhaps because my ears are too sensitive, is that the recording is squashed and strangely EQ-ed so as to sound like a crap set of 128 kbps MP3s or a bad cassette. It's really, really bad for a supposed professional product. It's probably not distracting for most people, but I'm surprised other reviewers haven't made an issue of it. A proper, bright production and mastering job might have made this good album great.

So, here they are again, making solid music that strangely sticks. I recommend it, I'll listen to it again, and yet, like their catalog, it can't break through this year's increasingly gridlocked list of 20 favorites. But to help you get a sense of the unanimous critical adulation for this band, take a look at Metacritic's top discs of 2005 so far. It's at #2.

The Statue (mp3)
Darlinghurst Nights (mp3)

Posted by borrowed_tunes at May 17, 2005 09:55 PM

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