release date: Sep. 27, 1984
format: cd (1996 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: John Brand
label: Beggars Banquet - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Bachelor Kisses" (acoustic version) - 4. "You've Never Lived" - 5. "Part Company" - 7. "Draining the Pool for You" - 9. "Unkind and Unwise"
3rd studio album by The Go-Betweens is the band's first and only originally released on Sire Records. It's the band's first album as a quartet after the inclusion of John Vickers on bass - now essentially leaving Grant McLennan room to play lead guitar. As usual, all songs are credited the two songwriters McLennan and Forster.
Following the daring and more edgy Before Hollywood (1983) this appears as more conventional mainstream pop / rock album with hints of folk rock and also slightly less poignant in its sound. According to Forster and drummer Lindy Morrison, the album failed in the recording process with producer John Brand, who had brought much good to the previous album, but here they found him taking wrong decisions in terms of sound and stylistic approach with a band who basically just wanted more of the same as they had previously produced together on the predecessor. Forster admits to have been uninspired when writing his contributions and Morrison states [details] that the band "were fucked [and internally] a neurotic mess".
In retrospect, the album isn't considered amongst the band's best - it appears to have come at a time of... frustrations, and the band's lack of a record deal didn't exactly make things easier. However, some critics praised it for being another example of classic songwriting. Two singles were released from the album: #5 and then #1, respectively, and with track #1 recorded and produced at a later stage by Colin Fairley and Robert Andrews as a track that shows the band's real potential and also (better) points towards later releases.
I have always thought of this album as 'superficial' in the sense that, yes, you are perfectly able, without any doubt, to hear that it's The Go-Betweens, but it either lacks edgy melodies, more substantial pop harmonies and / or the characteristic jangle pop. It's like a jar of sticky honey has been poured into tracks they didn't love in the first place. The two songwriters, Forster and McLennan have both brought their songs to the table, and they are both co-writers of the first two songs, but the rest are like night and day without much synergy.
It's by no means a lesser album, but in the discography of The Go-Betweens it's really not a recommended start.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
