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LIBERTY BELLE AND THE BLACK DIAMOND EXPRESS; TALLULAH; 16 LOVERS LANE
(JETSET)
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Beloved by a fervid cult audience, strangers to the general public — that’s the story of the Go-Betweens. But for those in the know, there’s no better place to find wistful, oblique, intelligent pop. And three of their best discs, 1986’s Liberty Belle . . . , 1987’s Tallulah, and 1988’s 16 Lovers Lane, have been brightly remastered and reissued complete with bonus material (demos, unreleased, rare and live tracks). The Go-Betweens were formed in Brisbane by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, the band’s songwriting tandem and mainstays. Their brand of æthereal sensitivity was always too highbrow for the US charts and perhaps a bit too polished to fit neatly into the punk underground. And that was a shame, because apart from the Smiths and R.E.M., it’s tough to think of a band from the late ’80s who produced music as witty, trenchant, and bittersweet as the songs on these discs. The secret of their success was the interplay between Forster’s angular melodies and McLennan’s more rounded hooks — a combination that brings to mind the dynamic at work between Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey in the similarly lauded yet commercially unsuccessful dB’s. Each disc has its highlights — Liberty Belle’s "Spring Rain," Tallulah’s "Right Here," and 16 Lovers Lane’s "Streets of Your Town" are three that come to mind. But the farther you dig, the more these discs yield in terms of pop craftsmanship and emotional resonance.
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