Album Review: The Go-Betweens - Quiet Heart: The Best Of The Go-Betweens

For those with any more than a passing knowledge of The Go-Betweens, the notion of a 'Best Of' compilation is a little odd. They are such an intimate and idiosyncratic thing in their vision and music, that beyond those 'hits' now part of the consciousness – Spring Rain, Streets Of Your Town, the heat-hazed magnificence of Cattle & Cane – your Go-Betweens favourites are often a b-side or obscure album track which speak of a moment in your own experience or emotion.

And then there's the divide in the songwriting styles of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan – which often schisms even ardent fans of one or the other. So maybe Quiet Heart works best as a very concentrated primer – a 'Go-Betweens For Dummies', perhaps – where you can dip into an era, a line-up, an album, and have your curiosity piqued to find your way into their myriad of wonders from there.

This also has the bonus of being the first Go-B's retrospective to cover their 21st century reformation, selections which may engage or enrage the purists. Finding You well able to stand in the canon, Darlinghurst Nights a memory of red wine-stained sharehouses, although Surfing Magazines has always struck as one wavefoam sample from a novelty song. But that's the kind of reaction they'll always stir.

There's also a nicely-frayed live performance from 1987, with both the familiar (Head Full Of Steam, Right Here) and the lesser-known, which some will take to their hearts (The Clarke Sisters, The House Jack Kerouac Built). Or just go back to Dive For Your Memory, and hear how a song can work on both your heart and head.