Customer Reviews

Bright Yellow Bright Orange

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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.

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.

i was a little disappointed with the go-betweens comeback album, friends of rachel worth, it seemed to lack direction, the songs were too muddled (and in robert's contribution just plain dull and silly). but on this record they have supassed themselves. wonderful melodies, great lyrics, good, emotive delivery: at the moment i'd put it up there as my favorite g-b's album, which is saying something after nearly 25 years in the business.

Another great effort from the Go-Betweens. In the early 1980's, their lyrics were better than the music. The music matched the lyrics by the late 1980s, and now the music has surpassed the lyrics, and that's only because they have such a warm and rich sound.

Bright Yellow, Bright Orange equals Friends of Rachel Worth, but has a poppier feel and is more consistent from beginning to end. Rachel was beautifully wistful and sad, but contained two or three or the band's worst numbers.

Grant McLennan's songs always range from good to great, so the strength of a Go-Betweens record rests on the unpredictable Robert Forster, and I love his songs on Bright Yellow. "Caroline and I," "Too Much of one Thing," and "Make Her Day," are among the best songs he's ever done. Simply infectious. Grant dominated early records like Before Hollywood, but Robert made a small leap forward on Spring Hill and took giant steps on Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express. This might be the first time he's better than Grant, though he might have been on Liberty Belle.

As others have said, this isn't Grant's best. He's merely good.

Anyway, I give this 4 to 4 1/2 stars, and remain pleasantly shocked at the comeback.

Although I think "BYBO" is a step up from their last album - their 1st comeback record - "The Friends of Rachel Worth," I still can't shake the feeling that Forster/McLennan have lost something. For me, nothing here really equals the highs they consistently reached during the 80s. Basic, major chords and under-developed melodies hamper many of the new songs. Don't people remember when Grant would play those achingly pretty lead guitar parts, like "Part Company" and "Head Full of Steam"? Nothing on "BYBO" approaches the weak-in-the-knees beauty of songs like "Twin Layers of Lightning" or "Bow Down," or the mesmerizing, lilting melodicism of "Unkind & Unwise" or Streets of Your Town," or the rich guitar interplay of "5 Words" and "Rare Breed."

Despite that, "BYBO" does contain its share of well written, memorable songs, particularly from Grant, whose batch of tunes - packed with hooks and interesting chord progressions - has the edge over Forster's. Particularly strong is "Poison in the Walls," with its glorious yet slightly strange minor key change in the chorus, the bouncy, sophisticated 60s-tinged pop of "Old Mexico," and the deeply moving, spare, piano-based "Unfinished Business," (which sounds like an update of his similarly spare, piano-led "Dusty in Here," from "Before Hollywood"). The slow-paced, dreamy "Crooked Lines," is another highlight that vaguely recalls a much earlier tune, "Just a King in Mirrors."

Forster's songs don't seem to work as well. The opening "Caroline and I," contains amusing ruminations on being born in the same year as Princess Caroline of Monaco, but musically sounds like a lazy rehash of "La Bamba." "Make Her Day" is the sort of generic alterna-pop that could've been bashed out by any faceless indie band. Only the Dylanesque epic "Too Much of One Thing" and "Something for Myself" (with hilarious, sarcastic lyrics about getting "out of folk" and into "rare groove," and later, sniffing "society's glue") hint at the brilliance we could once expect of Forster.

"BYBO" improves on "FORW," but they're still not living up to their melodic potential. The Go-Betweens will always be my favorite band, but up to this point their new work adds little to the brilliance of their 80s albums and is therefore not the best place to start. If you're new to this band, get Liberty Belle and Before Hollywood before you buy their comeback records; it'll make a lot more sense that way.

It is almost impossible to truly describe the Go-Betweens and this cd in their pantheon. This is a band that refused to conform their music to some standard set by the industry or other bands, and now some of their fans are upset because this new cd does not conform to some supposed Go-Betweens standard. Well, if the Go-Betweens had been willing to conform in the first place, the gobees would not be the band we now expect them to be. This is the dilemma of being a fan of a band like the Go-Betweens. You either follow them down the path where they lead or you get left behind. If conformity mattered to them, they would not have been capable of being who they are. Taste the music. You will not be disappointed. You will become addicted. As the Moody Blues said - there is a distinction between the fan and the artist. The fans have to agree that the band is the artist. We try to get what we can from the artists, but they cannot give in to our demands, or they would lose their artistic integrity.

Is Bright Yellow Bright Orange a great cd. Yes. Is it Liberty Belle or 16 Lovers Lane or something in-between? Well, it is Bright Yellow Bright Orange. What they have to tell us now is not what they had to tell us then. How could it be any other way?

I discovered this Australian group late with "Oceans Apart" and have since been building my collection going back in time. "Bright Yellow Bright Orange" is a joyful set from their come back, with wry lyrics and a soft rock musical overlay.

Every couple of months I play this CD or Friends of Rachel Worth and they are always fresh, bright and interesting. Which, of course, makes it sad that we won't have any more new Go-Betweens music with the death of Grant McLennan last May. The Go-Betweens sound is, for lack of a better term, intelligent pop. It doesn't hammer you, making it impossible to miss -- and that's part of the point -- the literate lyrics they both wrote, occasionally stunning, often opaque -- "She's got eyes that really know how to sting" or "told not to pick at society's glue, think I'll sniff it." Serious craftsmen, they would have fit in any of the last four decades, guitars, strings, harmonies skillfully set off against precise three or four minute stories. Go-Betweens are musical short story writers, not novelists, William Trevors, not Cormac McCarthys. The best of the bunch here are Caroline and I, Mrs. Morgan, Make Her Day, Something for Myself and Unfinished Business -- with hindsight, a pretty ironic title for the last song on what proved to be their last CD.

When the Go-Betweens returned in the new millennium with The Friends of Rachel Worth, they were treated as if they were the musical equivalent of Encino Man-anomalies, from another age found frozen in the ice. They fit well into the trend of bands tapping into retro-post-punk that was starting to form at that time (who better than an original?)

The band formed in Australia in '78. Over the next 12 years, they released six albums that were popular with critics, college radio DJs, and other musicians. Their influence was immeasurable with all but the buying public. After 12 years, they split up the band and pursued solo careers that never quite added up to the creative mixture that was the Go-Betweens. Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, the backbone of the band, had passable solo careers through the '90s and sometimes performed together for acoustic shows. These shows proved their following persisted; one show in San Francisco included Sleater-Kinney in the audience. The trio encouraged a reunion and brought together the framework that made the new album possible. The public response, while not earth-shattering, was heartening.

The Go-Betweens' follow-up, Bright Yellow Bright Orange, is a better package perhaps because it is McLennan and Forster left to themselves, and they rise to the occasion. The songs on the CD flow as delicate sketches with spare detail and touching images. In an age where many bands feel they need to crank the volume to get their point across, the Go-Betweens offer the original template in its own simple perfection.

Standout tracks include "Poison In the Wall," "Something for Myself," and "Caroline & I," which opens the disc. "Caroline" is Forster's ode to Princess Caroline of Monaco. He and the princess were born in the same year, and Forster sees them almost sharing a linked life and common coming of age. "Crooked Lines" advises us "gotta learn to give, gotta learn to live," which these songs do with their simple observations and aching honesty. For those of us who paid scant attention in the '80s and now are struck by this old-band-new, Bright Yellow Bright Orange reveals the wisdom that the Go-Betweens have garnered through their years away. It is rare for a band to offer so much in ten songs.