Bright Yellow Bright Orange

The Go-Betweens | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 18, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jet Set Records
• ASIN: B000089CML
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,263 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Caroline and I

2. Poison in the Walls

3. Mrs. Morgan

4. In Her Diary

5. Too Much of One Thing

6. Crooked Lines

7. Old Mexico

8. Make Her Day

9. Something for Myself

10. Unfinished Business

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Following 12 years of solo work, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan surprised faithful fans in 2000 with the much-lauded Friends of Rachel Worth, and the duo have come out swinging again. Forster may have hit his peak here. His wry, tightly crafted stories of human behavior form the core of the set’s strongest songs, highlighted by the brisk and jangly "Too Much of One Thing," the buoyant "Make Her Day," and the organ-adorned "Something for Myself." McLennan, on the other hand, delivers the goods in his usual straight-ahead, verse-chorus-verse fashion, providing an emotional refrain to sink our teeth into on "Poison in the Walls," and a wistful one on the elegiac "Unfinished Business." He seems to be moving in an even more accessible direction, while Forster’s work is wrapped in layers that are sheer joy to peel away. Bright Yellow, Bright Orange is further proof that the second half of the Go-Betweens’ career is one well worth following. --Lorry Fleming

Product Description

Ten shimmering slices of crystalline pop and delirious rock. Contains a bonus, limited edition disc (paper sleeve) with four never-before-heard tracks from the Bright Yellow Bright Orange and Friends Of Rachel Worth sessions 'Instant Replay', 'Woman Across The Way', 'The Locust Girls' & 'Girl Lying On A Beach'. Jetset. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Junkmedia Magazine Review, March 13, 2003

By 

junkmedia (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bright Yellow Bright Orange (Audio CD)

Like a love affair from the past, time has granted closure to the period encapsulated by the Go-Betweens' first six albums. From 1981's bleak and angular Send me a Lullaby to 1988's mature and elegiac 16 Lovers Lane, it seems that as a collective they managed to say so much, and maybe enough. It was a period marked with the passion of an impoverished band that moved 4000 miles from their Australian homeland to London -- and by the electrifying (and perhaps burdensome) genius of two young writers of considerable depth, Grant McLennan and Robert Forster. There were also, of course, the cliché drug problems, gratuitous label swindling, and incestuous romances that the world has come to associate with rock n' roll. Like a love affair conscious of its own inevitable death, it was a wonderful thing.

Bright Yellow Bright Orange, the second album since the Go-Betweens' reformation in 2000 (the first being 2000's Friends of Rachel Worth), can't escape being thought of as the icing on the cake of a relationship already consummated. Like a couple that have already gone through the fires of marriage and divorce only to come together again, the strangest torments have already passed. While Rachel Worth managed to conjure some of the old Go-Betweens spirit (a feat and expectation that mustn't have been easy), details such as indie rock touches from Sam Coomes (Quasi) on keyboards and heavy-handed production from Portland's Larry Crane put them in a pose they obviously weren't accustomed to.

The album also suffered from the loss of their secret weapon (and definer of their early classic sound), drummer Lindy Morrison, who was replaced by a pretty-good-but-not-perfect-choice, Sleater-Kinney's Janet Weiss. For an album dominated with some of the most uptempo pop ever written for a Go-Betweens' record, Rachel Worth's sleeper gem, and the gateway into Bright Yellow Bright Orange, was "He Lives My Life," a Forster ballad of unrequited love. This song, despite its somber tone, was the only one on the album that made you feel like you were listening to the 'real thing' again.

Bright Yellow Bright Orange is a much better album than Friends of Rachel Worth primarily because it largely abandons the formers' modern rock ambitions for a reflective and more natural folk-rock sound. Veterans of Forsters' solo work (and fellow Aussies), Adele Pickvance (bass) and Glenn Thompson (drums -- still no Lindy Morrison!) just seem to 'get' the Go-Betweens much more than the Portland crew. The rambling confessional "Too Much of One Thing" faithfully resurrects "Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts" from one of Forster's favorite albums, Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. McLennan's melancholy piano ballad, "Unfinished Business", revisits the desolation of "Dusty in Here" from the first Go-Betweens album. Both exude a natural breath and light lost in Rachel Worth's slickness.

And while the upbeat tracks from Rachel Worth are delightful, they seem cloying in comparison to those on Bright Yellow. This is because Rachel Worth showed the Go-Betweens toying with a 'sound', whereas Bright Yellow is simply their own thing. Written for the Princess of Monaco, Forster's marvelous, Television-haunted "Caroline and I" harkens back to the nostalgia of an earlier Go-Betweens' classic, "Spring Rain." The equally impressive "Mrs. Morgan," a song about a town that is angry with its local fortune teller, shows McLennan reflecting on the consequences of being a seer. Enchanting male/female back-up vocals recall the sound of some of his most classic Go-Betweens' offerings "Bachelor Kisses" and "Streets of your Town."

Like Friends of Rachel Worth before it though, Bright Yellow, Bright Orange is bogged with about 30% filler. The Go-Betweens have never been consistent, and 20 years going, they still can't 'really play' their guitars (thankfully). So can anyone explain why this release is better than the recent efforts of some of today's best bands?

Jonathan Donaldson
Junkmedia Magazine Review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four and 1/2 Stars!, March 31, 2003

By 

G. Preston (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bright Yellow Bright Orange (Audio CD)

The general opinion of "Rachael Worth" *seemed* to be "well it's good, but not quite up to par..." so I never picked it up (sorry guys). But I can say without reservation that this is one of the best Go Betweens albums I've heard yet. What makes it such a great album? Well, great songs of course! I think everything here is a winner, and there's a nice balance between soft introspection and feel-good pop tunes. "Poison In the Walls" & "Old Mexico" have rapidly worked their way into my list of favorites. If you're a bit uncertain if you'll be let down by the "new Go Betweens" sound, this one should seriously win you over. So pick up a copy and support these extraordinary yet overlooked songwriters who show they've still got the touch that won them such a devoted cult following.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite wonderful, especially with the bonus disc, March 9, 2003

By 

Randall E. Adams (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bright Yellow Bright Orange (Audio CD)

I think it a little sad that some folks have problems accepting the fact that the Go Betweens are older and are not recording in the mid-80's any longer. Lindy Morrison was great but she's gone, okay? And what's so great about that overblown echo-drenched 80s style production? Except for a few things like "Bachelor Kisses," it interfered with the intimacy of the songs.

One of the many things that I love about Forster & McLennan is their sheer honesty--their lack of fakery. For me, the very unpretentious guitar intro to "Caroline and I" lays it all out: here are some friends of mine just doing what comes natural for them. They're in my home and that feels right.

"Bright Yellow Bright Orange" is a more consistent album than "Friends of Rachel Worth." It also sounds like Forster and McLennan are responsible for a greater proportion of the instrumentation than on the last record. Robert has taken up keyboards a little and even tries a bit of slide guitar. I cannot agree with another reviewer's commentary about Grant McLennan's chord progressions. I've played all of the Go-Bees' albums on guitar and I don't really find the chord choices to be all that different since, say, 1985 or so. But with the maturing of their songcraft, both Forster and McLennan have learned to avoid the busy chord changing of the early years. This was happening by the time of "Liberty Bell" and was obvious during their solo years. And it's Robert Forster who comes up with the two-chord wonder "Woman Across the Way" on the bonus disc.

One tradition that has held fast is the practice of including only 10 songs on the album. If we have to wait as long as we do for a Go Betweens album, it's really nice to have a bit more than that to digest. So I really appreciate the four song bonus disc that Jet Set included with this album. For me, Forster's "Girl Lying on a Beach" is one of the high points in the whole collection even though it's obviously a demo.

I am very happy with this album. It's good enough for me to board a plane and go from the west coast of the U.S. to Europe just to see them play on this tour.