Released in 1988, 16 Lovers Lane was the Go-Betweens' final album before going on a 10 year hiatus, which was unfortunate as this is arguably their best work. It has a lushly pastoral feeling about it, with acoustic guitars in the lead accompanied by a revolving door of harmonica, mandolin, oboe, and violin, the last two instruments in care of newcomer Amanda Brown.

As the title suggests, the recurring theme has to do with love, lost, found, and rekindled. The Australian quintet's lead singers and songwriters Grant McLennan and Robert Forster do a marvelous job of alternating songs between the hopeful ("You Can't Say No Forever") and the desperate (the nervous "Was There Anything I Could Do") without straying toward either sentimentality or cynicism. And as if that's not enough, they hang their lyrics on hooks so soft and delicate that you fear the slightest breeze will blow it all away. Yet the light touch of drummer Lindy Morrison (that's her posing as eye candy on the album cover) manages to hold everything down.

The album opens with a betrayal on "Love Goes On" where McLennan claims "I know a thing about lovers" before admitting that the only way he could have ever retained his paramour would have been by keeping her locked inside his room. The next track, entitled "Quiet Heart," is filled with regret for things left unsaid. But just when you think 16 Lovers Lane is going to be an album only the chronically loveless could take to heart, it turns hopeful on commitment songs like Forster's "Love is a Sign" and McLennan's "The Devil's Eye."

This is what I find
No matter what you say
No matter what you do
I want to be the one
And love is a sign


And sometimes we don't come through
Sometimes we just get by
But I know with you
I've never seen the devil's eye

"Streets of Your Town" breaks the album up somewhat, making observations a la The Beatles in "Penny Lane," if Penny Lane were haunted by battered wives and deserted storefronts. A gorgeous female vocal repeats the word "Shine," offering some brightness into this ghost town of which McLennan sings. Fittingly, "Streets of Your Town" was the closest thing to a hit single that this album generated.

Though McLennan is the better singer, Forster's songs resonate because he appears to be the more optimistic one. On "I'm All Right," Forster sings of starting over again, but slowly. The aching finale, "Dive for Your Memory," sums up the plot to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in just over 4 minutes. I can't remember if it was used in the movie, but it should have been.

If there is anything negative I have to say about this album, it is with its low-key pace. The songs, while quite good, begin to sound the same, as if Forster and McLennan were competing to see who could write the quietest tune. With "Was There Anything I Could Do" being the only song that genuinely swings, the result is that listeners will have to exercise patience and let the other tracks sink in over time.

Understated melodies and a mature look at relationships make 16 Lovers Lane a grown-up pop album for the romantic in all of us.

Recommended: Yes