Album: Robert Forster / Grant McLennan

Intermission, Beggars Banquet

On their reunion as The Go-Betweens after a decade apart, it was decided that the compilation of highlights from Robert Forster and Grant McLennan's solo careers should be titled Intermission, an indication of the importance they placed on their Go-Betweens career. Sadly, the resumption was cut short by the death last year of Grant McLennan. With an album apiece, Intermission highlights the differences between the two songwriters' styles - Forster is typically elegant but can be ruthlessly analytical in songs such as " Cryin' Love" and "The Circle"; and McLennan wields a nice line in regret in "Haven't I Been A Fool", but reveals a darker edge in "Black Mule", where a man saved from thugs by a nun's intervention is nonetheless killed in the next verse by a car-bomb. McLennan's songs are more generously endowed with catchy hooks, but neither of them are well served by their bland voices.

Download this: 'Black Mule', 'The Circle', 'Haven't I Been a Fool'