The Go Betweens - Send Me a Lullaby
#600
By MacArthur Antigua
November 1981
The Go Betweens
Send Me A Lullaby
Genre: Indie Rock, Post-Punk
Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5
MacArthur’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Highlighteds:
Hold Your Horses
It Could Be Better.
I was eager to review this album as I had always heard of the Go-Betweens, but had never actually listened to anything they've put out. In turn, I've had a soft spot for Australian rock - particularly '90s outfits like The Lucksmiths and The Whitlams - and looked forward to seeing what the Go-Betweens had imprinted on them.
Welp, back to "Send Me A Lullaby," which is their debut album. You know the phrase, "greater than the sum of it's parts"? For me musically, it means that all of the different contributions come together to foster a larger more holistic sound. I'm not sure if was the production values, or the approach - but starting this album left me feeling the opposite of that. (It reminded me of the Violent Femmes' debut album, but that seemed warmer and cozier to me than this.) I could hear each instrument distinctly - rat-a-tat snares, jangly rhythm guitars, a slappy hyperkinetic bass, occasional blaring saxophone - the spare cartilage connecting all this is Robert Forster's and Glenn McClennan's wandering vocal reminiscient of Jonathan Richman.
On one hand, I guess it's kinda cool to be able to parse it out - but it left me thinking in my head more than actually feeling the music. I felt like I was doing musical math in sussing out the different arpeggios and drum cadences. And musical math isn't bad per se - For me, Spoon's "Kill The Moonlight" (2002) has that same kinda aesthetic, and I really dig that album - but for some reason it leaves me quite cold. The sparse production values offer a sense of "I'm in the room where it's happening," yet it's not until the final three tracks that I connected with this album: "Ride" continues the skittery guitar work, but it crescendos to a majestic chorus where the word "Ride" is sung with 7 syllables (if you squint your ears, is that Morrissey?). Ok, I'm on board. "Hold Your Horses" a mid-tempo rambler which is more instrumental than lyric, but the guitars shimmer and inspire a sense of expanse - this is road trip music. The final track is "It Can Be Anyone", which at 4 minutes and 30 minutes might as well be Don McLean's "American Pie" compared to the other tracks on this record that clocked in 2:30 or less. However, I found myself bobbing my head and rolling with the chord changes - and beamed as the instrumentation jelled together. All the while, the straightforward and simple lyrics, bore down on me:
The noises came and the noises went
With promises that were heaven sent
Lies are told when lives are spent
You shake him
The track ends with Forster and McClennan trading counter choruses - "You'll never never never break him" vs "One hand, One life." - the latter is the one that ends the song, and endures as the music stops playing. It's sung in that way where you could imagine thousands of football (Australian Rules?) holding scarves over their head, and bellowing valiantly to their heroes on the pitch. (Given the outsider vibe of the Go-Betweens, their squad is probably losing, but they're singing hard anyway.) It's a helluva way to end a debut, and I was left both: forgetting the first few tracks which nearly put me off, and scrambling to re-listen to the first few tracks because likely I must've missed the good stuff.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/send-me-a-lullaby/286548776
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