the go betweens were probably australia’s greatest musical export of the 1980s (arguably the best band to come out of australia full-stop). formed around the songwriting partnership of grant mclennan and robert forster they made some brilliant albums, the best of which probably being ‘16 lovers lane’. then they split up…made a few solo albums each before getting back together in the early part of this century and recording 3 quite superb albums in the shape of ‘friends of rachel worth’, ‘bright yellow, bright orange’ and ‘oceans apart’.
then, last year, grant mclennan died unexpectedly and this, ‘the evangelist’ is forster’s first album since.
in the song-writing partnership, mclennan was always the ’sunnier’ and more melodic of the two with forster being slightly more introspective. this new album, however, is a total joy from start to finish. it features 3 songs that were co-written with mclennan and it essentially sounds like a go betweens record…fans of intelligent, emotive, melodic songwriting should buy this immediately. then buy all of their back catalogue.
it made a brilliant soundtrack to this morning’s sunkissed drive over the black isle looking out over the cromarty firth to the snow-topped fannich’s.
marvelous.
