Masterful indie folk/rock ballads. Guitar based, male vocals with female backing vocals. Super radio-friendly. You got a problem with that? First album in five years from this legendary Australian band. Per usual, Grant McLennan and Robert Forster trade off on the songwriting and vocals... perfect musical complements for each other: sweet & bitter, introspective & proud. Single disc includes the new studio album along with the bonus live EP--tracks 11-16 from the EP. Twenty years ago I thought that the world doesn’t need any other pop bands apart from the Go-Betweens. With this record I’m reminded that these guys transcend 99.9% of pop. Songs are mid-tempo and end with simple fade unless noted. FCC Clean. All songs fuckin’ excellent. Start with 1, 2, 6 from studio LP; 14, 16 from live EP tracks.

==> 1. High-energy, travelin’ song about getting away from someone. Starts with some drumstick hits. Ends with “Here comes the city now” and then fades.
==> 2. Gentle lullaby, musing dreamily about an unrequited love. Starts with high-capoed guitars. After first verse, full band. Borrows melody from Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
3. Bouncy rocker with quaintly retro lyrics, e.g. “Born to a family of honest workers.” Also, “What could I do but follow the calling?” Ends with fading “uh huh, yeah yeah.”
4. Fretless bass and wispy, introspective vocals, reminiscing. Starts quiet and dreamy, becomes majestic before returning to quiet. “There’s no reason to cry.” Ends with “gotta find a reason” and then fades.
5. Starts with drum machine. Swaying ballad. “To know yourself is to be yourself. Keeps you walking through these tears.”
6. Dreamy ballad. Lots of literary & other allusions (most of which I don’t get). Starts with double acoustic guitar.
7. Bouncy, whimsical love ballad about a girl with black boots who wants to move to Tasmania. Starts with Percussion & funny sounds. Very slow fade.
8. Dreamy ballad that seems to be a love song to a murder victim. Starts quietly, fades up slowly.
9. Fades up slowly. Starts with ’60s style pop background vocals. Tasty mix of musical styles & feels.
==> 10. Mid-slow ballad. Simple but beautiful. False ending, then echoey bits for several seconds, then some silence.
--- bonus live EP - songs start & end with applause ---
11. Starts with applause, then spoken intro, then a bit of audience laughter. Then a happy Dylanesque song.
12. Dreamy twin-acoustic guitar ballad... solipsistic and stirring. Lots of strings.
13. A G-B oldie, redone. Still shines. The mix is lacking, but that doesn’t really matter.
==> 14. Quiet intro leading into swaying song about personal freedom. Perhaps my favorite G-B song. Cool arrangement but sucky mix compared to the various studio versions, but the song’s so good that again it doesn’t matter.
15. Sad ballad about a death in the family. Yes, strings. Touching & intense.
==> 16. Happy rocker about love, dark human nature, and the mystery of identity. Perhaps my other favorite G-B song. Again, sucky mix, and again it doesn’t matter.