| Author | Message | ||
     Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
I re-listened to all the solo albums this weekend in sequence to clarify most of my responses; recent background plays of Fireboy had revealed an album I was more taken with than my established critical reaction gave credit to. ("Warming up to it", if you will. Ahem.) Results of this investigation were by and large pretty predictable, but knowledge is power, and now I know for sure. (To put the grades into perspective, the six original albums are all different degrees of "A"). DANGER IN THE PAST It’s still no 1978 - 1990, and Forster can be faulted for that – in his rejection of pop for folk he crucially lacks a “Part Company”, “Man O’ Sand” or “Clouds”, which to be fair are among the greatest songs ever written (yes, I know two of them aren’t on said compilation). But there are six glorious, panoramic folk masterpieces here, and as I used to think there were three this is clearly an album that’s built to grow. I also like “Leave Here Satisfied”, particularly its surging conclusion, a lot better, but to deny it skirts pretension would be to lie. And the longest song is still the weakest, which is a drag. A- WATERSHED Still a melodic-pop favorite, and as did G.W., I bow down to melody and pop – I strongly believe the pure-pleasure McLennan was never better represented than on this record, and as far as conscious electronic tinges goes, it sure beats Cleopatra Wong. But if Forster can be faulted for not measuring up to his old band, McLennan can certainly lose points for a pair of songs that do injustice to both his old ones’ and Danger’s gleaming intellect and depth – “Haven’t I Been A Fool” is better perfection than “Justice”, but at least “Dear Black Dream” has something to say. The four B-sides from this period are all real finds. A- FIREBOY The production gets meatier and more generic all at once, and the songs generally follow suit – “Lighting Fires” and “The Dark Side of Town” do new and wonderful things for the McLennan upbeat and ballad models, but “One Million Miles from Here” and “The Day My Eyes Came Back” are thoroughly empty stabs at same, and aren’t alone. But Dave Dobbyn manufactures them to soar, and Grant is a writer of such integrity and affability that when the weak stuff hits you, you never feel bamboozled. Nevertheless, I still think the two vignettes are egregious cheating, and still turn off “The Pawnbroker”. B+ CALLING FROM A COUNTRY PHONE It’s not as good as an old Go-Betweens album because it’s too quiet (willfully, apparently) and because it lacks the intrigue of the two-enigmatic-brilliant-intelligent-song writers push/pull. Otherwise, this is a masterpiece whose every lyric is worth pondering over; its faux-country textures are as challenging as Danger’s Appalachian folk, but in a way that opens that album’s deliberately closed windows and lets in a welcome and welcoming dose of striped sunlight sound. Only “Forever and Time”, as the Functional Closer, falls slightly short, and the personal peak moment remains the top 10 C&W hit “Falling Star”. A I HAD A NEW YORK GIRLFRIEND Weirder than Fireboy, and less substantial – as much as most of these songs really cut it (the band sounds great, and the singer is not so bad either), there’s no significant artistic accomplishment here, though sometimes you have to remind yourself about that. The turkey (for me) is a token Dylan that feels like karaoke, and Forster is better writing about Mike Nesmith than doing him interpretive justice. But “Locked Away”, “Alone” and “Echo Beach” are all transcendent, and “Nature’s Way”, “Broken-Hearted People”, “Frisco Depot” and yeah-yeah-yeah “2541” (great song) all fill this filler album out quite commendably. B+ HORSEBREAKER STAR It takes a while to understand that this is McLennan’s best album, though you notice immediately that the songs are unfettered by potential production complaints, and most of them are written with a lot more craft and care than on the last two Grants. I always loved “Hot Water” and “Girl in a Beret” and still strongly dislike “Open My Eyes” and “Dropping You”. But I never realized how deeply impressed I was with “Open Invitation”, “Keep My Word”, “Ice In Heaven”, “What Went Wrong” or “Horsebreaker Star”, which makes for a total of 22 highlights. Best lyrics: the four-song boring stretch, which I denied a hell of a due. A WARM NIGHTS The hardest, most eccentric and least inviting Forster album, dammit, which is why it’s taken me so long to give it any regard. I had it at about a B+ when I finally put it in my car and went for a highly attentive 44-minute drive a week ago, and only during the excessive perma-misstep “On a Street Corner” was I in danger of falling asleep on the road. But this weekend, the familiarity with Nights’ thornier stuff allowed me to enjoy the record’s humor, its sarcasm, its remarkable looseness. “Snake Skin Lady” still puzzles, “Jug of Wine” and “Fortress” meander, but those six others blaze beautifully. A- IN YOUR BRIGHT RAY Taking a cue from the aforementioned experiment (after gradually getting pins-and-needles in unwelcome places), I took this forever adversarial CD on the road with me as the sun gorgeously set and solidified my utter enchantment with the first five songs, whose glorious production render them the adult-contemporary-from-heaven McLennan was always secretly seeking. Then the filler started flowing, and by the celebrated “Lamp By Lamp”, I had tuned out once again. Eight unremarkable songs won’t just sabotage five great ones, they’ll arouse suspicion about lyrics as valentine-cliché as the title track’s. B That is all, Victor | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 272 Registered: 10-2006 |
Glad to see you're warming to Warm Nights, VP. I've never understood why people regard it so gloomily, one of my all-time favourite albums. Did you only recently, given the extremes of your first-love loquaciousness, get your copy of DITP? Where on earth did you find one? | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1399 Registered: 01-2005 |
Stuart, there are some used copies of DITP reasonably priced on amazon.com, and some expensive new ones as well! I wouldn't mind a remastered release of DITP, if there ever was such a thing. Before I saw Robert and Grant live @ the 7th House in Pontiac in June of 1999, I only had Horsebreaker Star on cd. I had the other seven within the next few months, but I had to get a few of them from Australia. | ||
| Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
To elaborately answer, Stuart: I had already heard Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane in 2006, but my full-on discovery of just how amazing this band was came with my purchase of the Intermission compilation in 2007, which straddled pop and art communicatively enough to floor me and leave me wanting everything. I thought I'd never find any of the solo albums I so desperately wanted to hear until I was perusing the infamous iTunes and discovered that Beggars Banquet had put all 8 records on there, reasonably priced for public consumption (the 24-track Horsebreaker, too, not the abridged), ready for download. I couldn't help myself - I bought them all within a span of three months or so, Watershed and Danger in the Past first. I didn't mind that it was online-only; I assumed that if I had physical copies with artwork and such they would be battered and scratched. The decision was a little counterintuitive to my very minimal income; my purchase of Horsebreaker Star actually led to a chain of events wherein my overdraft charges ended up being about $200, making it the Go-Betweens album I effectively paid the most for. (Runner-up was 30 dollars for my import copy of the deluxe 16 Lovers Lane, which I bought exclusively for "Rock and Roll Friend" and "You Won't Find It Again".) Anyway, the bank eventually refunded half of it, so. | ||
| George Glenn Unregistered guest |
Does anyone ever think that there will be, in time, another 'best-of' combining both eras..? | ||
| Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
I think nothing makes more sense than to have a full-on thirty-year Forster-McLennan retrospective, bridging the originals and the solo albums and the comeback, replete with a smattering of tracks from their joint live performances -- from "Karen" to "From Ghost Town", '78 - '08. As has been stated elsewhere, the economy would not permit such an undertaking. But is there no Australian market for it? I mean, what about Rhino Handmade? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2661 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think there should be two best ofs. 78-90 should be re-released in the double disc version, but adding a third disc of unreleased stuff initially to get us die hards to buy it yet again. Then there should be a single disc best of from the reformation years, adding an initial second disc of unreleased stuff, b-sides, radio sessions etc. It will all happen eventually when Obama saves the world economy. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1402 Registered: 01-2005 |
I've been waiting for a deluxe 78-90 re-release with remastered sound! Sounds like a winner to me Padraig!! NP John Coltrane - One Down, One Up: Live at The Half Note | ||
| Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
The convenient thing about those reissues they put out already, however, is that you can more-or-less construct a perfect 1978 - 1990 on your own of tracks with comparably remastered sound. That's what I endeavored to do, albeit after I heard all of the albums first (then bought 78 - 90 on eBay vinyl, exclusively so I could read those notes). Mild caveats: Cattle and Cane is 19 seconds shorter on the actual record (so it says, I still can't tell the difference); The Lost Album tracks are hair louder than the others; and I had to use the Bellavista version of a few tracks, namely Bachelor Kisses, which is uncannily soft on that SHF reissue. But why let that stop you, newcomers... er, newcomers with $140 to spare? I guess it's really not convenient at all. But I did it, and I listen to it excessively! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2668 Registered: 05-2005 |
The difference is that Cattle And Cane on 1978-1990 is the single version, which omits the do-do-do, do-do-do, do-do-do notes at the start. (I'm sure someone else can provide a more musical way of describing those notes.) So it isn't really possible to make up your own remastered copy of 1978-1990 as the single version of Cattle And Cane is not available elsewhere on CD. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1403 Registered: 01-2005 |
I never did buy the double disc imported version of 1978-90, but i listened to the US single disc many times in the early 90's until BB released the reissues of the six classic albums in the mid-90's. Up until then I only had my cd of 16 Lovers Lane that I bought in November of 1988 and a muddy sounding cd of Tallulah on Big Time that I bought in 1989. Padraig, is the Gob's Peel Sessions worth picking up? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2669 Registered: 05-2005 |
Everything Go-Betweens is worth picking up Michael! | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 276 Registered: 10-2006 |
I'm trying to remember if the Intermission tracks are remastered, and if so can anyone hear much difference between them and the originals? And I may have found DITP for 14 euros from an Italian online shop... here's hoping. Better than 130 quid on Amazon anyway! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1407 Registered: 01-2005 |
Padraig, I just found a new copy of The Peel Sessions available on amazon.com at a very reasonable price. If it's anywhere close to the greatness of LIVE ON SNAP with Dierdre O'Donoghue, then I'll be a happy camper. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1582 Registered: 10-2004 |
Michael, I absolutely ADORE the Peel Sessions. One of the best things they ever did, IMO. The version of Five Words absolutely kills the SHF version, and the Peel Rare Breed is without question the definitive version of that great song. Plus, you've got the stellar Second Hand Furniture, and the slightly quirky Power That I Now Have (which has a chord change that was subtly worked into To Reach Me) isn't too shabby either. I honestly don't expect people to be as excited by the Peel Sessions EP as I am, but for me it's completely essential. Required listening for anyone who ever comes to this board. It's totally different from LIVE ON SNAP, too, as that's a sloppy but fun live on the air session, and the Peel Sessions are more like a "live in the studio" with a few overdubs kind of thing. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1410 Registered: 09-2006 |
Definitely seconded on Peel Sessions, Michael. And I like the SNAP stuff more every time I listen to it, especially the later acoustic set. Deirdre O'Donoghue's over the top enthusiasm is very infectious...sad to hear that she died rather suddenly awhile back. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2672 Registered: 05-2005 |
How coincidental you said that Allen, as I just read about her death yesterday in an article on some other band who'd played on her show. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1409 Registered: 01-2005 |
It's hard to believe it's been just a few months shy of 10 years since I bought Bellavista Terrace and Live on SNAP. I had to buy SNAP seperatly though, as my BT copy didn't include it. Dierdre was a great host, and KCRW-FM really rocked back in the day and is still pretty decent today. Our local NPR college station in Detroit, WDET-FM, was just as good as KCRW until a few years ago. Now it's just a shadow of itself and I no longer listen to it as it's mostly news. WDET turned me on to the Go-Betweens in Novemebr of 1988. I'll let everyone know what I think of The Peel Sessions when I get it. I really lucked out finding that new copy on amazon.com, as it was the last new one and it was less then $16.00 US. | ||
| Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
It's so interesting how averse a number of you seem to online downloads - iTunes, etc., where the solo albums are not a long search or hard bargain - or even the blog posts that are out there. I'm no stranger to eBaying or paying for GB's stuff, and I know the Apple company is something of an evil establishment, but is a lot of this about the physical owning that gratifies fandom, or is iTunes not available in Europe, or is it a question of integrity...? I paid $8.91 for Danger in the Past and nothing for downloading Peel Sessions mp3s that would cost under $4.00 currently on iTunes, and did no scavenging. (I promise I'm not an agent for Steve Jobs, even though this may read like it. I'm certainly groused about the fact that there's no way to cancel my account.) | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1417 Registered: 09-2006 |
Nice find indeed, especially since it's OOP. All that, plus the label is glow-in-the-dark! Have no idea WHY, but it's pretty. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1951 Registered: 03-2005 |
Victor, I always like the physical object. I don't trust crashing computers and I want to read liner notes or credits. And I guess I'm just an old walrus (I AM an old walrus) who likes to look at a couple of walls full of much-loved and largely esoteric music CDs. But I've also run into copy-control issues with things sent to me by other folks who bought from iTunes. That, right there, is a total deal-killer to me. The copies of things that people have sent me over the years have yielded more CD sales than the industry could ever hope for otherwise, as I'm sure others on here can vouch for. It's unforgivably stupid to interfere with free dissemination of music on the grapevine. | ||
| Victor Prose Unregistered guest |
All fair! Trust me, I'm no stranger to the wall(s) full of much-loved physical CDs. But cost and availability have begun to exceed the requirements of such a desire for me. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1486 Registered: 09-2006 |
Going all the way back to the original post: I've felt for a long time that it's the production that's the only thing that's keeping me from fully enjoying "In Your Bright Ray." Plenty of good songs when I listen up, but it sounds like it was recorded from behind a thick wall of wet tissue paper. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 428 Registered: 01-2007 |
I think I have the Peel Sessions on vinyl I must dig them out | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1489 Registered: 09-2006 |
After some recent consecutive listenings of IHANYG my estimation of it has risen even higher...pulling off a high-quality covers album is artistic achievement enough for me, especially given how many people (including many greats) have failed at doing just that. It even has a loose theme: sort of "I feel so sure of our love I cover a bunch of songs about us breaking up" complete with a late-night melancholy vibe which ends with the singer heading out to jump in the river. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 3152 Registered: 05-2005 |
Allen. Hear hear. Its a freakin brilliant album. Bob's de man ain;t he!!?? | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1504 Registered: 01-2005 |
Maybe it's time for a top 10 covers album list? | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1491 Registered: 09-2006 |
Worth spending a leetle bit of thought on, yes. | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 5 Registered: 04-2009 |
The question then becomes - do records like In The Wee Small Hours and Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook count? Or would it just be stuff like Pin-Ups? | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1506 Registered: 01-2005 |
Pin-ups like sounds good to me. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1495 Registered: 09-2006 |
Second question: cover albums done by one person? Multi-artist? Separate lists for the two types, or mixed? | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 1496 Registered: 09-2006 |
Yes, I'm being fairly silly... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1508 Registered: 01-2005 |
Cover albums done by one person, or two max, so the Sweet/Hoffs "Under The Covers, Vol.1" album would be eligable. | ||
| Victor Edwin Prose Member Username: Victor_prose Post Number: 8 Registered: 04-2009 |
I made a list, then thought it perhaps best to put a up a new thread over this in the off-topic section, so I did.(!) |