620. The Go-Betweens - 16 Lovers Lane (1988)


















Track Listing

1. Love Goes On!
2. Quiet Heart
3. Love Is a Sign
4. You Can't Say No Forever
5. Devil's Eye
6. Streets of Your Town
7. Clouds
8. Was There Anything I Could Do?
9. I'm Allright
10. Dive for Your Memory

Review

One thing annoys me about this album, there is an apostrophe lacking in the title. If not, what do Lovers Lane? Is Lane a verb? Maybe that's how you do things in Australia...

Grammar German National-Socialism out of the way, I quite like this album. It is that kind of slightly folksy alternative music coming out of the same place as the Triffids, with influences of Prefab Sprout, U2 and even Roxy Music in the use of the oboe in a couple of tracks. And with the exception of U2 I like all of those, and there is something of the Violent Femmes to the guy's voice.

The lyrics are pretty great, and the songs are all appropriately sentimental for what are some really good love songs. And it is one of those subtle albums, where your favourite tracks keep changing and you like it a little bit better each time you listen to it, so worth checking out if you are into this sort of thing. And I am.

Track Highlights

1. Was There Anything I Could Do?
2. I'm Allright
3. Quiet Heart
4. Love Goes On

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

16 Lovers Lane was the final release from the original version of the band. The Go-Betweens broke up in 1989 and would produce no other material until Grant McLennan and Robert Forster reformed the band, with a completely different lineup of personnel, in 2000.

The original release of the album contained ten songs. In 2004, LO-MAX Records issued a greatly expanded CD which included a second disc of ten bonus tracks and music videos for the songs "Streets of Your Town" (two versions) and "Was There Anything I Could Do?" which were filmed to promote 16 Lovers Lane at the time of its initial release.

Was There Anything I Could Do?: