Best Of [CD]

Can't quite see the reasoning behind this release? Something for the casual Go-Betweens fan? No such thing in my experience! They may not have had the commercial success they surely deserved but every person that their music touched was instantly converted to rabid fandom and trainspotter like devotion. As it stands this is a pretty reasonable overview of this remarkable bands career although Beggars Banquet put out an excellent compilation a few years back called '1978-1990' which seems to be deleted now. That album had plenty of rarities to entice the serious fan and a good selection of the band's most accessable work to sweeten things out. This one concentrates solely on the latter which means that you get no surprises but the quality threshold never dips below outstanding. Any CD with Cattle & Cane, Spring Rain, Head Full Of Steam and the achingly beautiful 'Wrong Road' on it has got to be an instant classic. If you don't have Liberty Belle, Tallulah or 16 Lovers Lane get them all but if you want all their instant classics on 1 neat cd 'click to buy' now.

'Bellavista Terrace: Best of the Go-Betweens' was a 15 track compilation that surfaced between Robert Forster and Grant McLennan's late 90's reformation and the cycle of Go-Betweens albums that comprised 'The Friends of Rachel Worth' (2000), 'Bright Yellow Bright Orange' (2003) and the recent masterpiece 'Oceans Apart' (2005). The recent untimely death of Grant McLennan suggests that we'll need another compilation to take in that brilliant career - more similar to the double LP perspective of 1990's '1978 - 1990' compilation on Beggars Banquet.

In the meantime, 'Bellavista Terrace' is a fine reminder of a great band and an ideal one-disc compilation (though there is a limited edition version that needs to be owned taking in two radio sessions that feature many great songs not here: 'Twin Layers of Lightning', 'Clouds', 'The Clarke Sisters', 'Bow Down', 'Apology Accepted' & 'Love Goes On.' Forster and McLennan were the Lennon/McCartney, the Bell/Chilton, or the alternative Morrissey/Marr - one of the great songwriting partnerships (though both have made several solo albums). The Go-Betweens initially sufaced in the UK as part of Alan Horne's Postcard label, alongside such acts as Josef-K, Orange Juice & Aztec Camera. They share lots with Orange Juice - Byrdsian-jangly guitar flourishs, literate lyrics and the tag 'The Smiths...before The Smiths' (though Marr's rock-approaches and the funky basslines he wrote made The Smiths' less culty). The Go-Betweens have been covered by the Wedding Present, have been cited by bands like Belle and Sebastian and Sleater Kinney (the latter worked with them on 'Friends of Rachel Worth'), and I can detect their sound in acts like The Decemberists and the Arcade Fire. One of the great cult bands then...

This compilation comes with typically self depreciating notes from Forster alongside great photos of the band at various stages - there is a hidden track in the form of classic early single 'Lee Remick' (which surfaces a few minutes after the sublime 'Dive for Your Memory' ends).'Lee Remick' is one of the great singles of that exciting era between punk and new pop - silly in a sublime way. There's nothing from 'Send Me a Lullaby', two tracks from 'Before Hollywood' (the timeless 'Cattle and Cane' & 'That Way') and just two from the patchy 'Tallulah' ('Bye Bye Pride' & 'The House That Jack Kerouac Built').There are the single versions of 'Head Full of Steam' (which features Everything But the Girl's Tracey Thorn) and 'Man O'Sand to Girl O'Sea'; the highlights stem from the classic Go-Betweens albums 'Spring Hill Fair' (1984), 'Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express' (1985) and '16 Lovers Lane' (1988) - arguably albums that everyone should own anyway!

Forster's 'Part Company' and 'Draining the Pool for You' are sublime tracks taken from 'Spring Hill Fair' - though perhaps trumped by McLennan's wonderful 'Bachelor Kisses', which like 'Cattle and Cane' and 'Head Full of Steam' is great alt-pop. Alongside the aforementioned 'Head Full of Steam' comes the best two songs from 'Liberty Belle & the Black Diamond Express' - 'The Wrong Road' and single 'Spring Rain.' The former finds McLennan taking lead vocals backed by musicians who would play with Siouxsie & the Banshees and Marc & the Mambas - epic, heartbreaking stuff that tops Echo & the Bunnymen's similar work on 'Ocean Rain.' 'Spring Rain' is another transcendental joy - a song that sounds like a hit in the world where I loiter, it was the first Go-Betweens track I heard when it featured briefly in Jonathan Demme's 'Something Wild.'

The Go-Betweens line-up expanded towards the end of the 80s, alongside McLennan, Forster, bassist Robert Vickers and drummer Lindy Morrison was violinist/oboeist/backing vocalist Amanda Brown. 'Tallulah' was a bit patchy, but the line-up delivered the great '16 Lovers Lane' which featured near-hit single 'Streets of Your Town' (like Microdisney's 'Town to Town' this should have been a bona-fide hit), Forster's nostalgic sigh 'Dive for Your Memory' and opener 'Was There Anything I Could Do?'

'Bellavista Terrace' is a fine primer in the Go-Betweens, though I'd probably recommend 'Oceans Apart' - as it defines what the band was/is and contains as many of their best songs that are here. Really though, the four Go-Betweens LPs (Oceans, 16, Liberty, Spring) need to be owned, and the others have much to commend them too. A not bad introduction, but one that needs to be updated to take in the reformed Go-Betweens work ; also a reminder of what a great band they were. RIP.