I am at the time of life when I no longer want anything whatsoever to do with Lou Reed except for the Third Velvet Underground Album. That aside, he is henceforth banished from the house, along with Sting and Bono, both of whom were expelled some time ago*.
So I wish that "Unfinished Business", the last song on the Go-Betweens' second post-reformation record, Bright Yellow Bright Orange, didn't remind me faintly of Lou's "Satellite of Love". But it does. As the saying goes, "We shall overcome".
I hope you all haven't lumped the return of the Go-Betweens in with countless other tawdry "reunions" (yes, Lou Reed, this too is all your fault; you will never be forgiven for your wilful destruction of Venus in Furs on the VU reunion/Sterling Morrison valediction tour). This is the real thing: two equally talented songwriters go their separate ways for a few years, then find reasons to start working together again. The "comeback" album, The Friends of Rachel Worth, had its seams showing (it could almost have been a compilation of their respective solo work) but on Bright Yellow Bright Orange the chemistry is back. It may not have the emotional heft of the best of their earlier work (me alone in a room w/ "Part Company" = great waves of tears) but it nevertheless is able to reach places deep within you that others can't. Listen to the intertwining of the guitars at the end of "Mrs Morgan". The gorgeously simple guitar line that closes "Poison in the Walls". The fact of Forster/McLennan taking in turns the singing of "Too Much of One Thing". It is all very simple and understated. And there is a sense that at this stage of their careers they can just kick back and have a little fun.
In the car on the way back from the coast we had on 16 Lovers Lane. Carl, our resident six-year-old music critic, is a big fan**. The new Go-Betweens may not reach those kind of heights, but the mere existence of the two latest discs is something which few of us could even bring ourselves to wish for; the fact that they are both bloody good, well, maybe you need to pinch me ...
*David Byrne was similarly banned around the time of True Stories, but has made a surprising reappearance owing to the listenability of Feelings and Look into the Eyeball, so take heart, Lou, remove the mullet and who knows?
**Carl's current faves apart from the Go-Betweens include Abba, the REM of Automatic for the People, Jonathan Richman, Manu Chao, Pet Sounds, "I Am The Walrus", Beck, Cornershop, Elvis' "A Little Less Conversation", and the soundtrack of Monsoon Wedding. The boy's got taste.
