Friends of Rachel Worth

Though the presiding geniuses of the long-overlooked Aussie band the Go-Betweens have spent the last decade pursuing solo careers, Robert Forster and Grant McLennan came back together with nary a hitch for The Friends of Rachel Worth. The reunion is enhanced by their ace backing band--Sleater-Kinney and Sam Coomes (Quasi). Despite their punk rock cred, their contributions are subtle and understated, letting the Go-Betweens take center stage, where they so obviously belong. --Tod Nelson

The Friends of Rachel Worth, the Go-Betweens' seventh album, arrives 12 years after the sixth. Though the interceding solo careers of songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan have had their moments, all great partnerships are more than the sum of their parts, and it is to be hoped that this album encourages them to put their reunion on a permanent footing. The Friends of Rachel Worth was recorded by Forster and McLennan in Portland, Oregon, with Sleater-Kinney falling in as a backing band. All the virtues that characterized the Go-Betweens at their finest are still present: five songs each by Forster and McLennan, each one a small El Dorado of hearts and flowers. As ever, their styles are contradictory but complementary: McLennan's peerless knack for the understated, insidious melody anchors Forster's heroically overwrought posturings. In terms of the Go-Betweens' awesome back catalog, this contains the exuberant pop sense of 16 Lovers Lane, the spare and evocative arrangements of Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express, and the lyrical accomplishment of Tallulah. Ultimately, the best that can be said of The Friends of Rachel Worth is that it is worthy of being called a Go-Betweens album, and those in the know will know that praise can come no higher. --Andrew Mueller