Go-Betweens Oceans Apart

Apparently, the Go-Betweens are legends. That's news to me since I never heard of them, but hey, I work for a living. But I think this explains some of the ecstatic reviews I've seen for their new album, Oceans Apart, and why my take on it, while favorable, is a lot less, er, sticky. If a band that helped me through puberty came back after a long hiatus and started a healthy second wind to their career with a strong album and a nostalgic sound, I'd probably be ecstatic too. Just watching Floyd run through a few old tunes at Live 8 was enough to put a smile on my face that lasted hours. But this review, for better or worse, is free of such baggage and is therefore more objective and/or clueless.

Put in the digitally encoded disc and you are transported back to 1986 and the birth of the CD as a popular medium. Here Comes the City recalls classic Talking Heads, with trebley bass, jittery vocals and a production sheen which is pure mid 80s vinyl (Disclaimer - Me no like the 80s very much, but the Heads were a highlight). But this isn't going to be all leather ties and Hughes movie highlights. These are grown ups at work. There is a tone of world-weariness throughout, a consistency I find remarkable given the presence of two distinctive songwriters. McLennan and Forster kick the song ball back and forth and, while their writing voices remain distinguishable, they blend seamlessly thanks to the effort in crafting the group sound. Again, I find this level of cooperation and unity of purpose astounding for two talented songwriters with so much history behind them.

But here's where I have a problem. I just don't really dig the whole English (I know, they're Aussies, yada, yada, yada), 80's, new wave sound. I don't mean to sound like Beavis and Butthead who, while watching some 80's Britband video, surmised that "all English people are gay" (I may be paraphrasing here). But with the cheesy reverb cranked to 11, the dynamics compressed to 0, and a less than ballsy bottom end, the resulting wash of sound is just, I don't know, weak. For instance, Simple Minds could have been playing their brains out on Don't You Forget About Me, but in the end they come off sounding like a bunch of wussies. Great song, great performance, baaaaaaaad sound. Someone could write a dissertation on the importance of sound and sound alone in the history of rock music. It often gets ignored, but sometimes it's the whole point.

So that brings us back to Oceans Apart. As far as the songs go, there's not a bad apple in the bunch. And some, like Lavender and its wonderful one-note melody, or No Reason to Cry and its breezy vocals, are really terrific. But oooooh, the cheese in that sound. What to do? I have to give a qualified rating here so that those who think I'm way off base on my aural criticism can add a point or so. I think it's a great album, I just don't like to listen to it.