But in his first album in seven years he's clearly tailoring lyrics to that destiny, and that is an aesthetic choice, apt and sometimes droll but also limiting. It's his destiny, imposed by his limitations as both singer and tunesmith. Subtlety isn't exactly an aesthetic choice for the other Go-Between. There are no love songs as that term is usually understood here-just a solemn track about the perils of moving one's wife from the German forest to the Australian desert, a cheerful one about hooking up with a relocated mother and child at church, a lively one about the dead friend he'll mourn till he's dead himself. That's how it was after the band reunited in 2000-ultimately, Forster's sensible, prosaic voice struck home and stuck with you. Simultaneously, the arrangements also sink in, and soon you learn that the title cut's cello riff is just as arresting as Grant's catchy tune. Īs on most Go-Betweens records, the melodies take time to sink in, though not the Grant McLennan legacy retrofitted with a Robert lyric about Grant's affinity for melody. But hooks have a way of surfacing-the keyboard riff of "I Can Do," his herky-jerk repetitions of the title "Danger in the Past." Clearly the surviving Go-Between should keep making music-alone. Ignoring chronology, the more eccentric disc by the less melodically apt Forster doesn't even lead with "Baby Stones," a no thanks to open relationships that soars on his most McLennanesque tune. The solo collections from their decade-long '90s hiatus work differently. Go-Betweens records set the late Grant McLennan's placidly melodic romantic discontents against Forster's talkier, knottier excursions, improving both by contrast. Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997 Songs too good for the help, subcontracted to none other than Edwyn Collins ("Cryin' Love," "I Can Do") ** I Had a New York Girlfriend Ī cover album that runs out of material ("Echo Beach," "Locked Away") * Singer-songwriter ("Baby Stones," "Is This What You Call Change") ***Ĭalling from a Country Phone Ĭountry-rock was never this gangly-singer-songwriter either ("The Circle," "Drop") **
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