The Friends of Rachel Worth

The Go-Betweens

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 19, 2000)
• Original Release Date: September 19, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Jet Set Records
• ASIN: B00004XSRY
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #156,508 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2000
Though the presiding geniuses of the long-overlooked Aussie band the Go-Betweens have spent the last decade pursuing solo careers, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan came back together with nary a hitch for The Friends of Rachel Worth. The reunion is enhanced by their ace backing band--Sleater-Kinney and Sam Coomes (Quasi). Despite their punk rock cred, their contributions are subtle and understated, letting the Go-Betweens take center stage, where they so obviously belong. --Tod Nelson

Amazon.com
The Friends of Rachel Worth, the Go-Betweens' seventh album, arrives 12 years after the sixth. Though the interceding solo careers of songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan have had their moments, all great partnerships are more than the sum of their parts, and it is to be hoped that this album encourages them to put their reunion on a permanent footing. The Friends of Rachel Worth was recorded by Forster and McLennan in Portland, Oregon, with Sleater-Kinney falling in as a backing band. All the virtues that characterized the Go-Betweens at their finest are still present: five songs each by Forster and McLennan, each one a small El Dorado of hearts and flowers. As ever, their styles are contradictory but complementary: McLennan's peerless knack for the understated, insidious melody anchors Forster's heroically overwrought posturings. In terms of the Go-Betweens' awesome back catalog, this contains the exuberant pop sense of 16 Lovers Lane, the spare and evocative arrangements of Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, and the lyrical accomplishment of Tallulah. Ultimately, the best that can be said of The Friends of Rachel Worth is that it is worthy of being called a Go-Betweens album, and those in the know will know that praise can come no higher. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A New Lullaby, September 22, 2000

By	Andrew Stafford (Brisbane, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews

Yes, comeback albums are a dodgy prospect at the best of times. No, neither Robert Forster nor Grant McLennan had set the world alight with their most recent solo albums. Yet, from the opening acoustic notes of Magic in Here (which instantly recalls the intimate yet strangely elusive atmosphere of their 1982 classic Before Hollywood), it's apparent that a valuable partnership has been rekindled.

In some ways, not too much has changed. Apart from the fact that this album doesn't feature the ubiquitous double-L in the title, there are 10 songs, as always split evenly between the two songwriters. Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss does a great approximation of Lindy Morrison's unique style before those 80s production teams straightened her out, reinforcing the parallels between this and the Go-Betweens early work, particularly on the edgier Forster songs like Spirit and the obviously autobiographical German Farmhouse.

In other ways, of course, this is a completely different group and, at times, there is a nagging feeling that this is in fact not quite the Go-Betweens but two solo albums grafted together. If anything is really missing, it's the beautiful melodies and additional instrumentation that Amanda Brown gave the band's last two albums, Tallulah and 16 Lover's Lane.

In this sense, this album is not a continuation from where the Go-Betweens left off, but it's very definitely a worthwhile new beginning. Most of the album is very strong, and some of the songs rank with the pair's best work. Forster's He Lives My Life is the centrepiece, a wryly beautiful study of what might have been. And Surfing Magazines is one of his funniest ever songs, his charmingly flat singing not hiding a neat and very quirky hook.

McLennan, so long considered the more commercial songwriter of the band, is also in form. One doubts songs like The Clock, Heart and Home and the gorgeous Orpheus Beach will send this album racing up the charts anywhere, but then, this is not a just world.

And who cares anyway? The Friends of Rachel Worth is an album for the true believers, for those whose memories of a great and defiantly different group remain undimmed. For those new to the legend, who are approaching the Go-Betweens on the strength of their exalted reputation, you are in for a truly special treat - get this, then gorge yourself on the back-catalogue. Because pop music doesn't get much more sensitive or keenly felt as this.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars People Move On, June 23, 2003

By	Anthony Butler (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

The problem with some of the other reviews of this album (particularly Thoutah) is that they don't acknowledge that artists who write particularly personal songs are constantly changing their personal situations and perspectives on the world, which ultimately will change the type of songs they write and albums they produce.

With regard to the Friends of Rachel Worth, I would advise anyone not to obssesively compare this album to what the Go-Betweens released in the 80s. Yes, "Streets of Your Town" deserved the NMEs rating of the best single released in the 1980s, but that honor doesn't obligate the Go-Betweens to continue to write this song over and over again. Instead, view this album as Robert Forster and Grant McLennan bringing their individual life experiences in the 90s back into the collective enterprise that is the Go-Betweens. As the circumstances of Robert's life change (wife, children etc..) he like any person is apt to reflect upon his life, what it means that a generation after him now exists, and to contrast his current life to his past. For instance, "Surfing Magazines" is a brilliant take on Robert's view of himself as an outsider to the prevailing "surfie" culture that existed in the 70s when he was growing up in Brisbane. The song both simultaneously mocks this lifestyle and the fact that he once yearned for it. If that doesn't show progress in his writing, I'm not sure what does.

Similarly, Grant is showcasing his songs in a low-fi setting-somehat similar to the production values of Robert's solo efforts. So, even though his songs might not necessarily sound as "shimmery" and upbeat as his usual output, I think they are indicative of a maturing talent who is adjusting his expecations of the world and is thankful for what it provides him.

This whole notion of preserving a fixed viewpoint of a group and the individuals that make up the group is something that is common amongst people who never got to see a group perform in their original incarnation, and therefore can't relate to them as an organic group who will change as time and circumstances dictate, but instead regard them as a painting or some other artifact that can be displayed as demonstration of their own good taste.

Ignore the reviews, buy the album and enjoy the fact these two masters are working together again!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars don't hesitate, just get it, October 17, 2000

By A Customer

I was a little worried about the prospect of a reunion album from Grant and Robert. I had the good luck to see the two of them live a while back and it was very much a nostalgia trip with the audience moist-eyed and adoring - but the music a little thin without the rest of the band. The CD however, is great and grows on you really quickly. 'Magic in here' is typically sweet and Grant-like. 'Heart and Home' is similarly catchy and sweet. 'Orpheus beach' is also a classic Grant song, dark to start with but opening up to a great chorus. The Robert songs are also good, particularly 'He lives my life', which is not quite 'Clouds' but almost 'Twin Layers of Lightning'. Overall there's not a bad track on the CD. The single 'Going blind' is getting a lot of airplay on 'alternative' stations in Australia meaning we have the inestimable pleasure of driving along on sunny spring days at the moment listening to the Go-Betweens on the radio - something that hasn't happened since 'Streets of your Town'. Since it's unlikely you'll hear them on your radio station (in the rest of the world), you'd better buy the CD.