Send Me a Lullaby
| Send Me a Lullaby | ||||
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| File:SendMeALullaby.jpg | ||||
| Studio album by The Go-Betweens | ||||
| Released | November 1981 (AUS) February 1982 (UK) 2002 |
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| Recorded | July 1981 Melbourne, Australia |
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| Genre | Rock, alternative rock, indie rock | |||
| Length | 35:37 | |||
| Label | Missing Link (AUS) Rough Trade Records (UK) Circus |
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| Producer | The Go-Betweens and Tony Cohen | |||
| The Go-Betweens chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Send Me a Lullaby | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
Send Me a Lullaby was The Go-Betweens' debut album. It was released in November 1981 in Australia on Missing Link as an eight-track mini-album. It was subsequently released in the UK on Rough Trade Records, an independent music record label (Missing Link's UK distributors) in February 1982, as a 12 track album.[2]
Contents
Details
The album was recorded at the Richmond Recorders studio in Melbourne in July 1981. The album was engineered and produced by Tony Cohen (The Birthday Party), together with The Go-Betweens.
In 2002, Circus Records released an expanded CD which included a second disc of twelve bonus tracks of songs recorded by The Go-Betweens around the same time as the album together with a music video for the song, "Your Turn, My Turn".
McLennan later said, "Send Me A Lullaby is to me an inauspicious debut. It's a record that I think if I'd heard - well, it's hard for me to say that, but if I'd heard that and I wasn't in the band, I think my comment would have been 'What the fuck is going on here.' There's great melodies but then there's changes which to this day I can't work out. There's lyrics to this day which I don't understand and when I actually summon up enough courage to get to the microphone, I sound like a choirboy with a mouthful of fruitcake."[3]
Morrison said her drumming on the album had been affected by the experimentation with her previous band Xero. "The trouble was, it had become part of me to do silly things, which is why my drumming is idiosyncratic with the Go-Betweens in many ways. On Send Me A Lullaby there are lots of strange drumbeats, things that a normal drummer wouldn't play," she said.[4]
Reception
Reviewed in Australian Rolling Stone at the time of release, it was described as reflecting, "the progression from folky naivety of the early songs to a more involved, complex set of emotions, though understatement is still a key feature." The reviewer notes it is an album with, "no, or at least very few, overdubs," and says, "the band have produced a fresh, uncluttered sound that has a live presence to it." The review concludes by saying, "everything's come together just fine."[5]
NME described the album as, "a record of tremendous depth, a mystery to be fathomed." Noting the album's naivety, clumsiness, intelligence, and frailty, the reviewer notes, "Maybe I'm forgetting, but this seems the least fussy, least pompous, most natural and moving music I've yet heard from their part of the planet."[6]
Track listing
| Send Me a Lullaby (original Australian issue) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "One Thing Can Hold Us" | Grant McLennan | 3:17 |
| 2. | "People Know" (vocals by Lindy Morrison) | Robert Forster | 2:11 |
| 3. | "Midnight to Neon" | Robert Forster, Grant McLennan | 2:31 |
| 4. | "Careless" (lead guitar – Grant McLennan) | Robert Forster | 2:34 |
| 5. | "All About Strength" (lead guitar – Grant McLennan) | Grant McLennan | 2:12 |
| 6. | "Ride" | Robert Forster | 3:30 |
| 7. | "Hold Your Horses" | Grant McLennan | 2:14 |
| 8. | "It Could Be Anyone" (lead guitar – Grant McLennan) | Grant McLennan | 4:30 |
| UK issue | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "Your Turn, My Turn" | Grant McLennan | 3:03 |
| 2. | "One Thing Can Hold Us" | Grant McLennan | 3:17 |
| 3. | "People Know" (vocals by Lindy Morrison) | Robert Forster | 2:11 |
| 4. | "The Girls Have Moved" | Robert Forster | 2:36 |
| 5. | "Midnight to Neon" | Robert Forster | 2:31 |
| 6. | "Eight Pictures" | Robert Forster | 4:52 |
| 7. | "Careless" (lead guitar – Grant McLennan) | Robert Forster | 2:34 |
| 8. | "All About Strength" (lead guitar – Grant McLennan) | Grant McLennan | 2:12 |
| 9. | "Ride" | Robert Forster | 3:30 |
| 10. | "Hold Your Horses" | Grant McLennan | 2:14 |
| 11. | "Arrow in a Bow" | Robert Forster | 2:00 |
| 12. | "It Could Be Anyone" (lead guitar – Grant McLennan) | Grant McLennan | 4:30 |
| 2002 bonus disc | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
| 1. | "Sunday Night" | Robert Forster | 2:50 |
| 2. | "One Word" | Grant McLennan | 2:02 |
| 3. | "I Need Two Heads" | Robert Forster | 2:34 |
| 4. | "The Clowns Are in Town" | Robert Forster | 2:14 |
| 5. | "Serenade Sound" | Grant McLennan | 2:23 |
| 6. | "Hope" | Robert Forster | 2:04 |
| 7. | "Stop Before You Say It" | Robert Forster | 1:42 |
| 8. | "World Weary" | Robert Forster | 1:41 |
| 9. | "Distant Hands" | Fobert Forster | 2:01 |
| 10. | "Undo What You Did" | Fobert Forster | 4:05 |
| 11. | "Cracked Wheat" | Robert Forster | 3:54 |
| 12. | "After the Fireworks" | Robert Forster, Grant McLennan, Nick Cave, Lindy Morrison | 6:59 |
| 13. | "Your Turn, My Turn" (Video) | 4:29 | |
Personnel
The Go-Betweens
- Robert Forster – vocals, rhythm guitar
- Grant McLennan – vocals, bass guitar, lead guitar
- Lindy Morrison – drums, vocals
Additional personnel
- Nick Cave – vocals ("After the Fireworks")
- Steve Daly – drums ("I Need Two Heads", "Stop Before You Say It")
- James Freud – saxophone
- Mick Harvey – piano ("After the Fireworks")
- Rowland S. Howard – guitar ("After the Fireworks")
- Dan Wallace-Crabbe – piano ("World Weary")
References
- ↑ Allmusic review
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