Wizards of Oz: "For the music fan of a certain age, flicking through gig guides has recently become a source of profound discombobulation. Every page delivers a series of cataclysmic jolts from the past: the House of Love, Pop Will Eat Itself, the Wonderstuff, the Wedding Present, Suede, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, they're all back...
Whenever a band reforms, they are understandably subject to mistrustful inquiries about motives and consequences. Except, for some reason, the Go-Betweens, who reconvened in 2000 after 12 years apart without causing a solitary suspicious eyebrow to be raised. One ex-Go-Between who did not participate in the reunion, drummer Lindy Morrison, would claim this was because no one cared in the first place, except 'a fistful of wanky journalists and some students'...
On Boundary Rider, McLennan similarly delves back to the remote farmlands of his youth: a brave move, given they were the setting for his greatest song, 1983's remarkable meditation on childhood, Cattle and Cane. Boundary Rider may be its diametric opposite - it depicts a careworn, stoic ranch-hand, staring down middle age - but it's no less affecting."
Music fan of a certain age. My recent life as a curmudgeon finally has a name. Better than this one at least.
