Sunday, December 1, 2013

And So You Shall, You Old Fashioned Boy!


This is probably the best Go Betweens album, unless you count 1978-1990 (or my personal Fave Oceans Apart), but I’d better get the rest of them to be sure. Robert Forster’s contributions are even stronger than usual - the strong guitar/bass/drum attack more than offsetting his slightly askew vocals.
 
And just as usual, Grant McLennan goes pretty, and hits a couple of home runs - “Bye Bye Pride” actually being a grand slam. It’s a nice balance of melodicism and a strong rock bottom. The added female voice and instrumentation don’t hurt a bit, either. If the overall effect on me is less than overpowering it’s simply because I’d already been exposed to the best of these songs via 1978-90 already.
 
You should find it just dandy. A-
 
When to Play It: Late Morning, Early Evening
When to NOT Play It: When you want to slit your wrists. It’s just too... civilized for that.

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