Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Unimaginable Touch of Time, August 20, 2002
Originally released in May 1983 on Rough Trade, "Before Hollywood" was The Go-Betweens' second studio album. The record was, though it may be difficult to conjure it now, very much of its time and place in the history of independent pop music. At the time, Rough Trade was home to Aztec Camera, The Fall, and The Smiths (whose debut single, "Hand in Glove" was also released in May). While these other bands were decidedly British in comparison to The Go-Betweens' Australian outlook, they all shared a skeptical attitude to London and the New Wave: hostile to fashion, the media, the top-40. And yet, the strength of "Before Hollywood" resides not so much in its place within postpunk British avant-gardism - moving ever forward, crushing rock's outdated paradigms underfoot - but in its anomalous and eccentric thematics of loss and retrieval of the past.
Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, the band's songwriters, along with drummer Lindy Morrison had relocated from Melbourne to London in May 1982, and quickly saw Rough Trade release their first album "Send Me a Lullaby" and their fourth single "Hammer The Hammer" (recorded during a break in the Birthday Party's "Junkyard" sessions in January, and released again here on the second cd of this set). They spent the summer writing the songs that appeared on "Before Hollywood" and recording demos of songs that did not - e.g. "Just a King in Mirrors," "A Peaceful Wreck," "Near the Chimney" (all included here). By all accounts the summer was exceptional ("fantastic" is McLennan's word), and produced some of the group's best songs. "Cattle and Cane" - voted one of the greatest Australian songs ever - stands out, not least because it embodies the tone of album as whole: nostalgic, longing, bittersweet, but also deeply and maturely accepting of the pastness of the past.
Robert Christgau was once hooked on the chorus from "As Long As That": "I've got a feeling, sounds like a fact/It's been around as long as that." There is a distinct and pervasive sense throughout these recordings of memory and history concretizing into forms and images, words and sounds. Film is the metaphor but tape and vinyl were the reference: "Bring on the microphones/Hidden under stones/Record my sobs/In baritones" ("Before Hollywood"). Likewise, a thematic of visibility (audibility?) and invisibility runs through both Grant and Robert's songs: "Pull back the curtains/Let in the dark" ("A Bad Debt Follows You"); "I'm standing on a quay wrapped up in mist" ("Two Steps Step Out"); "In the dark/When shadows have their way" ("Dusty in Here"); "There is magic but really there's no magic/In what appears" ("Ask"). Grant's songs are filled with stars and ships, moons and trains - images of motion and and dim light from the heavens. Robert's songs use more oblique but consonant images of creativity, loss and transformation - early film ("the flicker of light"), Tin Pan Alley, mansions in ruin. The album is filled with a certain attitude towards the past and its role in artistic creativity -"Inspired by shadows/Driven by tears" - that never really settles down into a concept or statement, but circles around an empty core that is never revealed. The past is forever lost to the present.
That these songs have built into them a metaphoric sense of crumbling celluloid, yellowing images of imagined worlds outside time, impervious to restoration, is a testament to The Go-Betweens' enduring artistic sensibility. The lost gem on this reissue is, in this light, the tinny live recording of Grant's "The Exception of Deception or How the Broadway Bosses Beat Me of My Bucks" in which he sings: "And I won't say/That time stands still." But he does, and "Before Hollywood" takes us step-by-step through the pathos-ridden unsayability of time standing still.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Go-Betweens masterpiece gets deluxe treatment, August 7, 2002
The magnificent Before Hollywood from 1982 was what critics would (and did) call the Go-Betweens' "watershed album". Forster and McLennan intertwine so beautifully as to be singing the album in one voice, the way Lennon and McCartney blur together on Rubber Soul. Lindy Morrison's drumming is incredible on this album. Like the writing, edgy but more disciplined. Lyrically Before Hollywood is romantic in the nostalgic sense. Sometimes it feels like a shared memory. This is beautiful spacious evocative music. A classic, and one which richly deserves this excellent reissue, complete with a second disc of rare single sides and demos from the period. These show the fiery side of the group, in the same vein as By Chance, and include the majestic This Girl Black Girl. There is also a bonus video of Cattle And Cane.
The design is true to the original and has informative liner notes. This is an essential purchase.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Representing an unparalleled level of growth, August 27, 2007
Those who are familiar with the Go-Betweens' pre- "Before Hollywood" body of work are aware of the staggering amount of growth the band underwent since their debut, "Send Me a Lullaby." From an odd, disjointed collection of promising yet self-consciously arty songs, to this, an astonishingly mature, refreshingly melodic, and deeply emotional record that put the Go-Betweens alongside other 80s melodic guitar-pop greats like the Smiths, Aztec Camera, and early REM.
"BH" is remarkably consistent, though some songs may take a few listens to sink in. One notices immediately a newfound knack for strong, inventive melodies on songs like "On My Block," "Cattle and Cane," "As Long as That," and "By Chance." Forster's crystal-clear guitar and McLennan's inventively melodic bass interweave uniquely to create mesmerizing textures that harmonize beautifully, at times vaguely recalling Television or the Smiths.
Drummer Lindy Morrison's playing is smoother this time around, anchoring the songs rather than fighting them. Her drumming is still off-kilter in places, though it works more effectively, injecting a subtly jagged intensity, especially on "Two Steps Step Out" and "Cattle and Cane."
"BH" is the first album where McLennan and Forster began evenly splitting the singing/songwriting. McLennan steps up to the mic confident and sincere, singing his intensely personal lyrics with unparalleled emotion (one music journalist proclaimed McLennan had the "most sincere eyebrows in pop"). Forster is strong as usual, confronting real, adult emotions with his typical brand of irony.
Excellently produced by John Brand, the sound of "BH" provides a pleasing, colorful, organic atmosphere, with light touches of reverb and an emphasis on the sparkly-clean tone of their guitars. Hammond organ, played by 80s new wave session-man Bernard Clarke, adds much to the overall feel, sometimes lending the songs a sophisticated jazz-like quality, while other times recalling mid to late-60s Dylan.
"BH" was the first Go-Betweens album I bought/heard, and I'd say it's a good intro to the band. It captures them at a point where they'd made profound growth in a short amount of time, yet still retained enough rough edges to have a sound completely their own.
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~ The Go-Betweens
~ The Go-Betweens
~ The Go-Betweens
~ The Go-Betweens
~ The Go-Betweens
by The Go-Betweens 
