Tallulah | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 1987 | |||
Recorded | Camden, London, England | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, indie rock, new wave [1] | |||
Length | 39:11 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Richard Preston | |||
The Go-Betweens chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Tallulah | ||||
|
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".
Initial recording was done with Craig Leon in an attempt to make more commercial music. Only two tracks, both featuring synthesisers and drum machines, were ever completed, including the single "Right Here". [2] Robert Forster later wrote that the band were "playing day after day, getting tighter and tighter, believing at least two of us would be playing on the recordings at the same time. Why did we bother? We arrived on the first day of the session to find Craig behind a bank of keyboards filling the control room, programming the drums, bass and organ lines." [3]
With much of the recording budget spent on two songs, the remaining sessions with a new producer were hurried and the band was unhappy with the initial results. Forster said, "We were sort of cursed. We had the engineer that we were using on Liberty Belle , Dicky Preston, and working with Dicky was good. We then went on to the next one and we were put into this horrible studio it was over a practice room or something. And so Dicky didn't do a good job I think on Tallulah, so it had to be rescued and remixing a little but which always sounds horrible but it actually worked out okay with Mark Wallis." [4]
On the addition of Amanda Brown, Forster said, "with a violin and oboe player in the band, it meant we sounded like no one else. Which is always a good thing. On Tallulah she broadened our sound, and gave it more drama, which the songs needed." [5]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Blender | [7] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A [8] |
Mojo | [9] |
NME | 8/10 [10] |
PopMatters | 8/10 [11] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [12] |
Select | 4/5 [13] |
Sounds | [14] |
Spin Alternative Record Guide | 8/10 [15] |
Robert Christgau said, "They stick to what they know, and their knowledge increases. The quartet's a quintet now, up one violin, which may not seem like much but does serve to reinforce the hooks that have never been a strength of their understated, ever more explicit tales from the bourgeois fringe. I soon got involved with every song on the album." [8]
Thom Jurek of AllMusic found that "despite its production it has aged exceptionally well although it remains a product firmly of its time. The raw emotion, vulnerable tenderness and romantic desperation in its songs, textured by the blend of strings and keyboards, adds depth and dimension to this well of fine songs." [6]
All tracks are written by Grant McLennan and Robert Forster.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Right Here" | 3:53 |
2. | "You Tell Me" | 3:38 |
3. | "Someone Else's Wife" | 4:10 |
4. | "I Just Get Caught Out" | 2:16 |
5. | "Cut It Out" | 3:58 |
6. | "The House That Jack Kerouac Built" | 4:41 |
7. | "Bye Bye Pride" | 4:06 |
8. | "Spirit of a Vampyre" | 3:57 |
9. | "The Clarke Sisters" | 3:22 |
10. | "Hope Then Strife" | 4:54 |
11. | "Right Here" (video on 2004 expanded CD) | |
12. | "Bye Bye Pride" (video on 2004 expanded CD) |
All tracks are written by Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, except where noted.
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Time in the Desert" | 3:50 | |
2. | "I Just Get Caught Out" (early version) | 2:32 | |
3. | "Don't Call Me Gone" | 2:17 | |
4. | "Right Here" (early version) | 3:40 | |
5. | "If I Was A Rich Man/The House Jack Kerouac Built" (radio session) | "If I was a Rich Man" - Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick | 3:34 |
6. | "When People Are Dead" | 4:29 | |
7. | "The Clarke Sisters" (early version) | 3:10 | |
8. | "A Little Romance" | 3:41 | |
9. | "Bye Bye Pride" (radio session) | 3:47 | |
10. | "Doo Wop in 'A' (Bam Boom)" | Amanda Brown, Lindy Morrison, McLennan, Forster | 2:53 |
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.
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.
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".
The Friends of Rachel Worth is the seventh album by Brisbane indie band The Go-Betweens, released 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.
Amanda Gabrielle Brown is an Australian composer, classically trained musician, singer and songwriter known for her role as the violinist of the band The Go-Betweens and more recently a session musician and soundtrack composer.
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.
"Cut It Out" is a song by the Australian alternative band The Go-Betweens that was released as the second single their fifth studio album Tallulah. It was released as a 7" and 12" vinyl single on the Beggars Banquet label in the United Kingdom on 11 May 1987, with "Time in the Desert" as the B-side.
1978–1990 is a 1990 compilation album by Australian band The Go-Betweens. The album draws together music spanning the band's career from their beginnings in Brisbane to their 1989 breakup, including singles, B-sides, songs recorded for broadcast and previously unreleased material.
The Evangelist is the fifth solo album by Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster, released by YepRoc in 2008.
Bellavista Terrace: Best of the Go-Betweens is a compilation album by Australian band The Go-Betweens.
"Spring Rain" is a song by the Australian alternative rock band The Go-Betweens that was released as the lead single from their fourth album Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express in 1986. The single was issued by Beggars Banquet in the UK and Truetone in Australia, failing to chart in the UK, but reached number 92 in Australia.
"Bye Bye Pride" is a song by Australian alternative band The Go-Betweens that first appeared on their fifth studio album Tallulah. It was released as a 7" and 12" vinyl single on the Beggars Banquet label in the United Kingdom in August 1987, with "The House That Jack Kerouac Built" as the B-side. In Australia it was released in 1987 by True Tone Records, with "Time In The Desert" as the B-Side. "Time In The Desert" was originally released as the B-side of the band's earlier single, "Cut It Out". True Tone subsequently in 1988 re-released the single with a new B-side, "The Clarke Sisters".
"Right Here" is a song by the Australian alternative band The Go-Betweens that was released as the lead single from their fifth album Tallulah. It was released as a 7" and 12" vinyl single on the Beggars Banquet label in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1987, with "When People Are Dead" as the B-side. In Australia it was released by True Tone Records, also as a 7" and 12" single. It was also released In Germany by Rebel Rec. and in the United States as a promotional single by Big Time Records.
"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.
"Love Goes On" is a song by the Australian indie rock group The Go-Betweens issued as the third and final single from their 1988 album 16 Lovers Lane. The song was released in January 1989 by Beggars Banquet Records in the UK, with "Clouds" as the B-side. "Love Goes On" was the last single issued by the band before their split in December 1989.
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."