The Go-Betweens: The Friends Of Rachel Worth : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Like a little art film slipped in among a bunch of Eighties blockbusters, Australia's quirky Go-Betweens have returned from an eleven-year hiatus with a refreshing new album. Founding members Grant McLennan and Robert Forster spent the past decade recording distinctive solo efforts. McLennan's songs tend to be sonic and lyrical equivalents of such early Truffaut films as Jules and Jim, whereas Forster's oeuvre is more akin to Breathless-era Godard: On The Friends of Rachel Worth, McLennan creates briskly melodic soundscapes and richly painted lyrics that dissect disastrous affaires de coeur (the lilting "Heart and Home" and buoyant "Going Blind"); Forster concocts archly written slices of life, on subjects ranging from doppelgangers (the lovely "He Lives My Life") to Patti Smith (the bittersweet "When She Sang About Angels") to "Surfing Magazines." Forster and McLennan enlisted Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss on harmony vocals, guitars and drums, and other guests on strings and keys, resulting in an album that harks back to the Go-Betweens' past while sounding right at home in the alt-rock present. (RS 849)

HOLLY GEORGE-WARREN