"Before Hollywood", by The Go-Betweens. I think it can credibly be argued that The Go-Betweens never made a better album than the one that shares its title with this song [so that would be "Before Hollywood" then? - ed]. Sure, they got "better" than this, in the sense of developing a greater proficiency in their craft, but this album captures a band in the full flush of literate post-youth, oozing confidence, and with the world at their feet, and before the intrusion of the bizarre love quadrangles and other psychodramas that added a level of tension and underlying complexity to what came later. Much as had happened only a couple of years or so earlier in the case of another fine group of pop musicians from another, colder, country. Ha. The Go-Betweens and ABBA. Why had I not made that connection before?
Anyway, "Before Hollywood" (the song). I could have chosen any song from the album (and, as you know, will always choose "Cattle and Cain") but this is the one that came up on the iPod while I was out enjoying the lunchtime sunshine.
