Oceans Apart | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 3 May 2005 | |||
Recorded | November 2004 – January 2005 | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 65:04 | |||
Label | LO-MAX Records EMI | |||
Producer | Mark Wallis & Dave Ruffy | |||
The Go-Betweens chronology | ||||
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Singles from Oceans Apart | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 85/100 [1] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Blender | [3] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [4] |
The Guardian | [5] |
Mojo | [6] |
Pitchfork | 7.0/10 [7] |
Rolling Stone | [8] |
Spin | B+ [9] |
Uncut | [10] |
The Village Voice | A [11] |
Oceans Apart is the ninth and final studio album by The Go-Betweens, released in 2005. All the songs were written by Grant McLennan and Robert Forster. The album was recorded at the Good Luck Studios in London between November 2004 through to January 2005, except for "Boundary Rider" which was recorded at The White Room Recording Studio in Brisbane.
The live recordings on the bonus disc were recorded at The Barbican Concert Hall, London on 27 June 2004.
The album won the 2005 "Adult Contemporary Album" award at the 2005 ARIA music awards.
Many reviews and fans complained of the aggressively loud and distorted mastering of the initial release by Jon Astley to the extent that Lo-Max offered to exchange the original pressing for a newer release where the problem is less evident.
Forster later claimed "Darlinghurst Nights" was the song he was most pleased with writing throughout his career. He said "I loved writing the lyric, and I could just get all these people in - Frank Brunetti, who used to be in Died Pretty and was a music journalist on RAM; Clinton Walker is in it. It's a song that no-one else could have written but me - for better or worse." [12]
McLennan said, "We didn't want to be on the outer ripples of the pond anymore. We wanted to jump back into the maelstrom – London, just the energy, the competition of the place. We've made enough records and have listened to enough records by other people that we know this is a fucking good one." [13]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Oceans Apart received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 from 23 critic scores. The site named it the 22nd-best reviewed album of 2005. [1]
The Go-Betweens were an Australian indie rock band formed in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1977. The band was co-founded and led by singer-songwriters and guitarists Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who were its only constant members throughout its existence. Drummer Lindy Morrison joined the band in 1980, and its lineup would later expand to include bass guitarist Robert Vickers and multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. Vickers was replaced by John Willsteed in 1987, and the quintet lineup remained in place until the band split two years later. Forster and McLennan reformed the band in 2000 with a new lineup that did not include any previous personnel aside from them. McLennan died on 6 May 2006 of a heart attack and the Go-Betweens disbanded again. In 2010, a toll bridge in their native Brisbane was renamed the Go Between Bridge after them.
16 Lovers Lane is the sixth album by Australian indie rock group The Go-Betweens, released in 1988 by Beggars Banquet Records. Prior to the recording of the album, longtime bassist Robert Vickers left the band when the other group members decided to return to Australia after having spent several years in London, England; he was replaced by John Willsteed. The album was recorded at Studios 301 in Sydney, between Christmas 1987 and Autumn 1988.
Grant William McLennan was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. He co-founded the Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977. In addition to his work with the Go-Betweens, he issued four solo albums: Watershed (1991), Fireboy (1992), Horsebreaker Star (1994) and In Your Bright Ray (1997). He also undertook side-projects and collaborations with other artists. McLennan received a number of accolades recognising his achievements and contributions as songwriter and lyricist. In May 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association listed "Cattle and Cane" (1983), written by McLennan, as one of their top 30 Australian songs of all time. McLennan died of a heart attack in 2006 at the age of 48.
Before Hollywood is the second album by Australian rock band the Go-Betweens, released in May 1983. The album reached No. 2 on the UK Independent Charts and a single, "Cattle and Cane" reached No. 4. In 2001 "Cattle and Cane" was voted as one of the 30 all-time best Australian songs in an Australasian Performing Right Association poll of 100 music industry personalities.
Spring Hill Fair is The Go-Betweens' third album, released on 27 September 1984 in the UK on Sire Records. The LP was recorded during a "very wet May" at Studio Miraval in Le Val, France. Prior to the recording of the album, bass player Robert Vickers had joined the group, enabling Grant McLennan to move to lead guitar. The original release consisted of ten songs. In 2002, Circus released an expanded CD which included a second disc of ten bonus tracks and a music video for the song, "Bachelor Kisses".
Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, the fourth album by The Go-Betweens, was released in March 1986 in the UK on Beggars Banquet Records, the record label that would release the remainder of the original group's LPs through their break-up in 1989. The album was recorded at Berry Street Studios in London, England. The original release consisted of ten songs. The UK CD release in 1986 had the original ten tracks, plus two bonus tracks: "The Life At Hand" and "Little Joe". In 2004, LO-MAX Records released an expanded CD which included a second disc of eleven bonus tracks and music videos for the songs "Spring Rain" and "Head Full of Steam".
Tallulah is the fifth album by The Go-Betweens. It was released in May 1987 in the UK on Beggars Banquet Records. Prior to the recording of the album, the group had expanded to a five-piece with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Amanda Brown. The original release consisted of ten songs. In 2004, LO-MAX Records released an expanded CD which included a second disc of ten bonus tracks and music videos for the songs, "Right Here" and "Bye Bye Pride".
The Friends of Rachel Worth is the seventh album by Brisbane indie band The Go-Betweens, released in 2000, 12 years after their sixth, 16 Lovers Lane. For this album, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan were joined by all members of American indie rock bands Sleater-Kinney and Quasi as well as new bassist Adele Pickvance. The album was recorded in Portland, Oregon at Jackpot! Recording Studio by Larry Crane.
Worlds Apart is a 7" vinyl EP by the Australian indie group The Go-Betweens, released on 7 November 2005 on LO-MAX Records in the UK only. It contains a collaboration with Sushil K. Dade, "The City of Lights", which was included on his 2006 album, Secrets of the Clockhouse. "The City of Lights" was recorded in Glasgow in 2005 with Dade producing. "Finding You", "Ashes on the Lawn" and "Crystal Shacks" were recorded during the Oceans Apart sessions at the Good Luck Studios in London between November 2004 and January 2005. "Sleeping Giant", however, was recorded in Brisbane in 2004.
Amanda Gabrielle Brown is an Australian composer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. She was the violinist of Australian indie rock band The Go-Betweens (1986–1989): recorded on their studio albums, Tallulah (1987) and 16 Lovers Lane (1988). Brown has also worked as a session musician and, since 2000, as a screen music composer. She won the AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score in 2020 for Babyteeth (2019) and also Best Original Music Score in a Documentary for Brazen Hussies (2020). At the APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards of 2009 she won Best Music for a Documentary for Sidney Nolan: Mask and Memory (2008) and Best Music for a Television Series or Serial for The Secrets She Keeps at the 2020 ceremony.
Robert Derwent Garth Forster is an Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and music critic. In December 1977 he co-founded an indie rock group, The Go-Betweens, with fellow musician Grant McLennan. In 1980, Lindy Morrison joined the group on drums and backing vocals, and by 1981 Forster and Morrison were also lovers. In 1988, "Streets of Your Town", co-written by McLennan and Forster, became the band's highest-charting hit in both Australia and the United Kingdom. The follow-up single, "Was There Anything I Could Do?", was a number-16 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. In December 1989, after recording six albums, The Go-Betweens disbanded. Forster and Morrison had separated as a couple earlier, and Forster began his solo music career from 1990.
Fireboy is the second solo album by Grant McLennan, a member of the Go-Betweens. It was released in 1993. In the album's liner notes McLennan said the songs were for Gloria Swanson, Kenneth Slessor, Brett Whiteley and Dean Martin. Produced by Dave Dobbyn, it was recorded in Woolloomooloo. The first single was "Surround Me".
Bright Yellow Bright Orange is the eighth album by Australian indie rock group The Go-Betweens, released in February 2003 on the Trifekta Records label. It was nominated at the 2003 ARIA Music Awards for Best Adult Contemporary Album, but lost to John Farnham for The Last Time.
The Evangelist is the fifth solo album by Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster, released by YepRoc in 2008.
Glenn Thompson is an Australian musician who first came to prominence in Brisbane, Queensland, playing in the popular local bands Madam Bones Brothel with Pearly Black and John Rodgers, and COW with Robert Moore and David McCormack. Thompson played drums with Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens on his second solo album Calling from a Country Phone in 1993. He then toured Europe in 1994 with Forster and members of German band Baby You Know, Robert Pöschl and Michael Schott. For Robert Forster's world tour of 1996, Thompson was joined by Adele Pickvance on bass. Thompson and Pickvance were called Warm Nights after Forster's fourth solo release which was also titled Warm Nights.
"Cattle and Cane" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band The Go-Betweens, released as the first single from their second album Before Hollywood. It was released as a single in the United Kingdom by Rough Trade Records in February 1983 and reached No. 4 on the UK Independent Chart. The single and album were both released in Australia on Stunn, a small label allied with EMI. The Stunn pressings were of poor quality and their distribution limited.
"Bachelor Kisses" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band The Go-Betweens that was released as the second single from their third album Spring Hill Fair in 1984. The single was issued in the UK and Australia on Sire Records. "Bachelor Kisses" was the Go-Betweens' first real attempt at a commercial single.
"Head Full of Steam" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band The Go-Betweens that was released as the second single from their fourth album Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express. It was released as a 7" and 12" vinyl single on the Beggars Banquet label in the United Kingdom in May 1986, with "Don't Let Him Come Back" as the B-side. In Australia it was released in 1987 by True Tone Records, with "Little Joe" as the B-Side.
"Finding You" is a song by Australian indie group The Go-Betweens that was released as the second single from their ninth studio album Oceans Apart. It was released as a promotional CD single on the LO-MAX Records label in the United Kingdom in July 2005 and by Tuition Records in Germany on 25 July 2015.
Quiet Heart: The Best of the Go-Betweens is a compilation album by Australian alternative rock band, the Go-Betweens. It peaked at No. 51 on the ARIA Albums, No. 48 on the ARIA Physical Albums, and No. 15 on the ARIA Australian Artists Albums charts. Ian Wallace of Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) described how, "[it] is the first collection that spans the band's entire recorded output... A second disc features a live recording from 1987."