Love Goes On (McLennan)
I love this track, it is
so pretty. The guitar work is fabulous. I love they lyric, right down
to the ba-da-ba's in the chorus, particular genius lines include "I
know a thing about darkness/darkness ain't my friend" Amanda Brown's
violin work is great on this track, it is almost a rythm instument.
Quiet Heart (McLennan)
I love the into to this song, which apparently someone admitted was
influenced by U2's With Or Without You, the lyric again is devine as is
Amanda Brown's violin work, this whole song has an incredibly
melancholy feel to it. "Doesn't matter how far you've come/you've
always got further to go" is so beautifully sung, so resigned and sad.
The violin work at the end of this track is extraordinary. If you can't
tell I'm a big fan of Amamda Brown's work in the band both here and on
Tallulah.
Love Is A Sign (Forster)
This lyric is classic Robert Forster, he blames the songs opening lines
on living in London. OK. There is the most beautiful acoustic
guitar work on the chorus, it sonds like mandolin but apparently isn't.
"I'm not a playboy or a poet", I love that line. This song reminds me
of a painting with all it's reference to color and discussion of
imagery. I love the harmonica in the outro, harmonica and violin sound
gret together.
You Can't Say No Forever (Forster)
On this track Lindy Morrison gets a chance to shine, it has a very
strong rythm section generally but Lindy in particular is strong. The
lyrics are as they are on all of the tracks on this album, brilliant.
"You can't say no forever/I'll try", love it. This song is very
narrative driven, more than the other tracks on this albums, there
seems to be less formal song structure in as much as the length of the
verses varies greatly and the chrous never quite repeats. the outro is
fabulous.
The Devil's Eye (McLennan)
This track is short and sweet coming in at just on two minutes, I love
the lyric, "I don't want to let you get on your flight/the
forutuneteller might have been right" beautiful musically too,
basically just a pair or maybe three acoustic guitars and a drum.
Streets Of Your Town (McLennan)
I imagine that pretty much everyone living out side of a capital city
in Australia would be familiar with at least 20 seconds of this song as
it is used by Prime as the station call, which I find rather odd as it
is a rather slamming attcak of Sir Joh's Queensland, possibly the
Go-Betweens only political song in nine albums. Amanda Brown's backing
vocals on this track are incredible as is the guitar playing on the
bridge. The only probem with the song is it gets stuck in your head for
days at a time.
Clouds (Forster)
This track is one I used to ignore a bit, mainly because I listen to
this album a lot when I'm falling asleep and I'm asleep by the time
this track comes on. I love it though. Amanda and Robert's voices
really sound great together, normally Amanda sings much more on Grant's
tacks. This has little of everything musically, acoustic and electric
guitars and what sounds to me a lot like an oboe. The lyrics are again
great.
Was There Anything I Could Do? (McLennan)
This was one of the first Go-Betweens tracks I heard and I still
love it, the music here reminds me a lot of The Smiths which probably
explains why I liked it so much, again Amanda's vocals and violin are
brilliant as is the lyric. The violin solor after the second chorus is
amazing as are the rather random inserts of backing vocals, there
really seems to be no rhyme or reason as to where the backing vocals
are and I love that. "A picture of her at the pryamids/a knife held to
her heart" is classic McLennan.
I'm Alright (Forster)
Robert Forster's tracks are far less complicated musically as a general
rule and this song is an expamle of where that is a real advantage,
Grant's songs frequently have mutiple layers of violins and guitar
where as Robert's are far more simply arranged. This allows Robert's
voice to come to the foreground, only occasionally and rather randomly,
again backed by Amanda. The lyrics are great too.
Dive For Your Memory (Forster)
I'm one of the many, many Go-Betweens fans who counts this as a very
favorite track, for me it either this or The House Jack Kerouac built
off of Tallulah. The lyric is beautiful, "Deep down I'm lonely", this
again is very uncomplicated musically with pretty much only acoustic
guitars, a very lightly played drum and violin. This song is just
beautifull, it all comes together and finishes one of the best albums
of the 80's off on a perfect note.
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