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Friends of Rachel Worth Image
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

  • Summary: The first new release in 12 years from the influential Australian band features founding members Robert Forster and Grant McLennan with backing from members of Sleater-Kinney.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 12
  2. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. The Friends of Rachel Worth is the first new Go-Betweens album in a dozen years, and, remarkably, it's as if they were never away.... an ever-so-slightly-updated sound with a hint of lo-fi -- something the Go-Betweens pioneered on their earliest albums, before they found their more renowned intimate style.
  2. Poetic, languid, spoken/sung vocals similar to Lou Reed weave between lovely melodies whose appeal is evident usually after repeated listenings.... Its highlights recall the past glories of this commercially overlooked band, and adds a handful of keepers to their best work.
  3. 80
    Twelve years after the band split, it's immensely reassuring to hear Forster deliver lines only he could have written in his bruised, laconic, declamatory tone...
  4. Wall of Sound
    70
    As always, the acoustic pop tracks remain the Go-Between's most effective.... It's clear that the band's heyday, those heady times that supplied fans with a surfeit of astonishingly good pop songs... are over, but there's also no doubt that McLennan and Forster can still turn out quality goods.
  5. Quite possibly their best album.
  6. Puncture
    60
    Friends of Rachel Worth is a good album, and features some of the best songwriting either of the pari have come up with since early in their solo careers.... How shall we sum it up, then? An interesting footnote. A fan club record.... [#47, p.25]

See all 12 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. SaulB
    Apr 16, 2005
    10
    Fantastic. One of their best. Not a dud in the nunch. As good as liberty bell. A very mature pop record.