The Go-Betweens

The band's second album marries Velvet Underground-inspired post-punk and more romantic material. The clean, sinewy production allows songs like "Two Step, Step Out" to come alive. Many other great tracks lie within, but it's "Cattle And Cane" (simply one of the best songs of the '80s) that is the standout.

"I've got a feeling, sounds like a fact/It's been around as long as that," goes my favorite hook of the past few months, which is something of an aberration: in the great tradition of post-modern pop these folky-arty Aussies abjure melody much of the time, though the second side does begin to sing after a few plays, and after much longer the textures on the first assume a mnemonic aura as well. A little static for rock and roll, but as poetry reading goes, quite kinetic. (Grade - B+)