Send Me a Lullaby [Enhanced, Original recording remastered, Import]

The Go-Betweens | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 9, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Enhanced, Original recording remastered, Import
• Label: 3d Japan
• ASIN: B00006F1XZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,476,005 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Your Turn, My Turn

2. One Thing Can Hold Us

3. People Know

4. The Girls Have Moved

5. Midnight to Neon

6. Eight Pictures

7. Careless

8. All About Strength

9. Ride

10. Hold Your Horses

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Sunday Night

2. One Word

3. I Need Two Heads

4. The Clowns Are in Town

5. Serenade Sound

6. Hope

7. Stop Before You Say It

8. World Weary

9. Distant Hands

10. Undo What You Did

See all 13 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Stunning remastered 2 CD set featuring 12 previously unreleased tracks including a duet with Nick Cave and an enhanced section featuring the video for 'Your Turn My Turn'. 2002. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the first great Go-Betweens album, plus goodies, April 24, 2003

By 

aliled "aliled" (Austin, TX, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Send Me a Lullaby & Rarities (Reis) (Audio CD)

First of all, the track listing on the second disc is wrong. "I Need Two" and "Heads" are really one song called "I Need Two Heads". "It Took You A Week" was a demo version of disc 1's "The Girls Have Moved", but they elected not to include it apparently. "Throw It Away" isn't there either. And contrary to the description, the 12 tracks are previously unreleased, but some a-sides, b-sides, tracks from a semi-legit album of demos and a couple unreleased numbers.

This is the first Go-Betweens album and features them at their first stage of consistently recognizable competence. (Earlier material is available on '78 til '79: The Lost Album.) Grant and Robert have more or less disowned this album, and they did move on quickly after recording it - their next album (Before Hollywood) has just faint traces of the plentiful angular and minimalistic moments here. It's also easy to see how these songs could have been performed and arranged in much more sophisticated fashion on later records.

On the other hand, I don't think it matters much; this is still a fine and deeply interesting record. The band play well enough to have established something of their own sound, but they still wear their contemporaneous influences on their sleeves - in this case, the more literary of the early NYC punk crowd (Patti Smith, Television, Talking Heads) and the artsier of the early UK postpunk bands such as the Subway Sect. They've admitted as much and the aural evidence is there.

This is Robert's album in a way unlike all future Go-Betweens records (which were split pretty evenly down the middle.) Take that as a cue that even the most "pop" of the songs here do not adhere strongly to normal pop aesthetics; ideas are expressed in purely musical terms in a way that no future Go-Betweens' record matches. The drum solo in the middle of "Eight Pictures", odd saxophone parts, embryonic attempts at vocal harmony . . . they add up to a deeply impressionistic recording, bursting with ideas. The second disc is much the same, though by its nature somewhat less cohesive.

I'm glad this is the first Go-Betweens album I heard. It helps explain how the band later made use of slightly unconventional methods for conventional gain. The fun and riddles widely on display here confirm that the same sensibility underpins most of what comes later - it's just that their famous very dry sense of humor makes that a bit tough to unveil. In short, it's a great introduction to the band and a fine place to start.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Still finding their way..., March 1, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Send Me a Lullaby & Rarities (Reis) (Audio CD)

...Despite being a GoB fan of almost stalker-esque proportions, I don't rate this album...it doesn't work for me. I only have it to be a completist and for historical, archival purposes, geek that I am. I almost never pull it out to listen to. Here they are still kind of finding their sound, which at the time, was, at least to me, a fairly unoriginal, Talking Heads-y pastiche kind of thing. And don't get me wrong - this viewpoint informs their later music and shows you where they're from. It just doesn't add up to a very compelling listening experience.

This one is pretty much for zealots only...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Caught in Flux, August 27, 2007

By 

Lypo Suck (Hades, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Send Me a Lullaby & Rarities (Reis) (Audio CD)

The Go-Betweens' 1st full-length shows the talented Forster/McLennan duo in a state of flux, caught between their early, 3-chord garage pop "Lee Remick" days, and the sublime, lilting melodic pop that would later make them legends. "SMaL" in many ways reflects the 80s art-punk trends of its time. Their simple Jonathan Richman-esque pop gave way to a difficult style fashionable in the early 80s, marked by convoluted structures, disjointed rhythms, and scratchy guitar melodies that alternate between beauty and dissonance. Bands like Gang of Four, the Raincoats, the Slits, the Birthday Party, and many others perfected this sound. The Go-Betweens managed this okay, but with hindsight we know the flowering of something much better and more refined lay ahead.

But what set the Go-Betweens apart was their knack for weaving together beautiful, delicate melodies, harmonizing the bass and guitar off of each other in a unique way that vaguely recalled Television. This melodic side was also comparable to the Cure's first album with its stripped-down, bare-bones sound and raw, early 20-something angst.

The standouts on this mixed bag display both melodic and disjointed characteristics, and when it works it has a chilling effect. "Careless" and "Ride" are both undoubtedly cold and strange, yet they drop heavy hints at the melodic direction that would bloom on the next album. "Hold your Horses" and "One Thing Can Hold Us" further demonstrate this embryonic sense of melody. However, songs like "Arrow in a Bow" are too self-consciously arty to work. Other instruments are occasionally thrown into the mix, like drunken piano on "Your Turn, My Turn" or atonal sax on "People Know." Lyrically, Robert Forster is wry and clever, displaying his trademark irony in spades. McLennan hadn't really started singing at this point; he's only on 2 songs, and his vocals show an endearing lack of confidence that he would soon overcome.

Buy this if you're into scratchy, offbeat, artsy post-punk, or if you're falling madly in love with the Go-Betweens and you've already got 2 or 3 other albums. It's an odd record, and the Go-Betweens have stated their own contempt for it in interviews, but it remains an intriguing stage in their development. The bonus disc is notable for a wealth of demos that didn't make it onto "SMaL."