16 Lovers Lane [Import]

The Go-Betweens | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 22, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Import [Generic]
• ASIN: B0000070IF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,884 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Japanese remastered reissue of 1988 album includes a bonus disc with 12 tracks, 'Love Goes On' (Single Version), 'Wait Until June', 'Mexican Postcard', 'Rock And Roll Friend', 'Cassanova’s Last Words', 'You Won’t Find It Again', 'Running The Risk Of Losin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hugely under-sold masterpiece, November 17, 2005

By 

Karen L. Hunt (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 16 Lovers Lane (Bonus CD) (Audio CD)

You can't say this is underrated - critics have raved about it since its release - but at about 18,500 in the Amazon sales list, it is obviously unknown to millions of people who would adore it.
See previous reviewer for the run-down - I agree totally. I know all this group's albums. I saw them live, and McClennan solo - in fact I'm seeing Foster and McClennan at the Sydney Opera House next week. Sometimes they're not entirely easy to like; they make you work for it a bit.
But this is their masterpiece. Every memeber was in top form, despite personal turmoil, and the 'indie Rumours' is a good description. It's probably the best 'serious' rock/pop album to come out of Australia (challenged only by the more confronting Nick Cave). Gorgeous is the word. Pop music of the most affecting kind. In a fairer world, 16 Lover's Lane would nudge its way into the best 50 albums of all time.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a glorious swan song!, July 9, 1999

By 

Michael Paulsen (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 16 Lovers Lane (Audio CD)

That the Go-Betweens ended their career around 1989 after they had released their absolute masterpiece is a bit of a puzzle and a tragedy. "16 Lovers Lane" is transcendent and breathtaking. The opening cuts from Grant McLennan, "Love Goes On!" and "Quiet Heart", are so exquisite, it's hard for me to do them justice in words. Elsewhere, Robert Forster offers up some stunners as well ("Love Is a Sign", "Clouds"), and Amanda Brown proves to be a brilliant accompaniment with her oboe, violin and shimmering backing vocals. "Streets of Your Town" is *THE* pop masterpiece, even if it disguises something sinister and ironic beneath its optimistic veneer. I anxiously await Grant and Robert's new album. Could a full Go-Betweens reunion be in the cards soon? Let's pray so.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Album of All Time, December 13, 2005

By 

Travis Dubya McGee Bickle "elitist duffer" (Texas Quail Hunting Camp) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 16 Lovers Lane (Bonus CD) (Audio CD)

This would be my desert island disc, if I could only choose one. Sheer bloody magnificence is contained in these 10 perfect songs. I can't even choose favorites - my favorite is whatever one I'm listening to at the moment - but highpoints include: the fragile, but optimistic "Love Goes On!", the deceptively sunny, but dark "Streets of Your Town" (it's "full of battered wives") and "Quiet Heart", a tender love song that contains the somewhat depressing, but nonetheless true, wisdom "No matter how far you've gone, you've always got further to go".

"Dive For Your Memory", too, is sublime, Zen perfection. Very forlorn, but deeply poetic lyrics, set to a gorgeous, simple folk melody, accompanied by rich and tasteful acoustic guitar fills...

And, let me not leave out the romantically tortured narrative of "I'm Alright"...the protagonist of this song has been beaten down, but is, somewhat shakily, ready for a comeback.

Every Go-Betweens disc is worth picking up, but this is the most masterful and perfect distillation of their gifts so far.

(I'm a huge fan of them all, but if I had to narrow it down, I'd say the ones to get are: "Tallulah", "Liberty Belle", "Spring Hill Fair", "Oceans Apart" and, of course, this.)