That Striped Sunlight Sound

I usually agree with the general consensus by the powers that be that live albums "don't count" when ranking top records of the year/decade/epoch, but I'm making an exception for That Striped Sunlight Sound by The Go-Betweens. I like this live album (and DVD) even more than the three G-Bs studio albums during the 2000s.

This album was released in early 2006, just before Grant McLennan died, and documents the Brisbane homecoming show on the final Go-Betweens tour. Grant & Robert and their backing band (bassist Adele Pickvance and drummer Glenn Thompson) go through 16 songs from the Go-Betweens catalog, from early singles like "Karen" and "People Say" through tracks from their mid-80s heyday and solo eras, all the way to their final album Oceans Apart.

The latter G-Bs played the early songs even better than the original band did. I like this stripped-down version of "Clouds" even better than the original, which was one of my all-time faves off 16 Lovers Lane.



The DVD version also adds ten bonus tracks of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan alternating selections from each of their albums. I bought the disc at a Tower Records blowout sale shortly after Grant McLennan passed away, and nearly broke down during the interview segment when he said he thought "our best work is still ahead of us". It would have been too. Here's Grant's kitchen table version of "Bye Bye Pride".