Download of the day: Go-Betweens, "The Statue"

The Statue

The Go-Betweens

I can go on for a long time venting my heartbrokenness that the G-Bs will never make another album, and probably will continue the deeper I get into their back catalog.  When Grant McLennan died last May their only albums I knew well were the 1978-1990 collection and16 Lovers Lane, though I was also starting to dig into the then year-old Oceans Apart.  And while I still haven’t totally warmed to Oceans, I can now appreciate that it’s a damn good bookend for a band that never got its due. (Read: thank god they ended on this note rather than Bright Yellow Bright Orange.)

I’ve had the ringing guitar riff from "Statue" stuck in my head for days now for no reason I can figure.  Maybe it’s because it's one of Oceans' few tracks that sounds almost radio-bound, where they might be a normal, publicly-accepted, borderline-nameless pop band instead of the idiosyncratic and sweetly personal Go-Betweens.  (The light, almost Brazilian “This Night’s For You” is another.)  This is more of a compliment than it appears.  I want to see the G-Bs hit it big, even if it’s too late to do Grant any good.

Free download: Go-Betweens, The Statue (4:25)
Buy Oceans Apart here.  Also available on eMusic.