REVIEW: The Go-betweens, The Lost Album '78-'79 (Jetset)
- David Landgren
It's the story of a miracle. Some three to four years before the Go-betweens released their first album, Send me a lullaby, someone plugged a tape deck into the mixing desk during a rehearsal in Robert Forster's bedroom. And a copy of this tape recently resurfaced (hence this record).
Robert Forster sums it up best himself in the press release: "This...is another world. This is us as a Seventies band. A Seventies band that didn't really sound like many other Seventies bands. And that for me is the charm of the whole thing and why I remember this period with such fondness. That gave it power and a certain uniqueness."
And the amazing thing is how much it really works. I'm not much of a fan of Send me a lullaby (which will probably get me shot in certain circles). So with that in mind I approached the idea of a lost album with a certain amount of trepidation and suspicsion.
I truly was expecting some dreadful cringe material, or something hopelessly self-indulgent. But it's something else again, something quite magical. The sound quality is, to be honest, bloody awful; it's like trying to watch a play by the shadows cast on walls. At times, especially on "Long lonely day," the tape signal is washed out with static. Faint squeals of feedback loom in the background like thunderclouds, threatening to swamp everything.
For reasons I can't quite fathom, while listening to this album, the closest parallel I can find is The Fall's Perverted By Language. It has something to do with the rough nature of the music, like an uncut gem. It's also pretty obvious that any attempts (although I suppose they cleaned it up in minor ways) to clean up the signal would probably also destroy the soul of the music.
But it works. Indisputably, it's a major record. At the same time, it's a non-record, a record that will never be. It captures things as they were, at the time. A couple of twenty year olds playing their own material, at a time when most other people their age were no doubt listening to Supertramp and Pink Floyd.
The two links to the future are held in the opening tracks, "Lee Remick" and "Karen," songs that any self-respecting Go-betweens fan should know off by heart.
The rest of the songs veer off into the unknown, unless of course you were living in Brisbane twenty years ago - in which case this is certainly going to bring back some memories for some people. Some of the stronger tracks, despite the technical flaws, include "Long lonely day" and "Day for night," which contain the seeds of the future, and "The sound of rain" with its '60s vibe.
The bottom line is that this record is pretty much an essential addition to any self-respecting Go-betweens fan. Again, don't expect technical perfection; that's not what it's about. However, I understand completely why Grant and Robert decided to issue it, and I thank them for having had the courage to do so. For all its warts, this record is amazingly engaging.
