Oceans Apart

The Go-Betweens’ folk-rock has grown rootsier since the Brisbane, Australia cult favorites’ return to recording in 2000, but it’s hardly lost some of its spiky edges. On the excellent Oceans Apart, Robert Forster’s songs, in particular, retain the tense forward motion and droll ironies of his earlier New Wave-influenced days. “Born to a Family” turns working-class rock tropes inside out, while “Darlinghurst Nights” calls up a Dylanesque cast of characters. Grant McLennan’s romanticism likewise is intact here, as “Finding You” (with its own echoes of “Sweet Caroline”) demonstrates. The two leaders still complement each other on this set, whose seeming modesty soon grows into another display of ambition and deep feeling. Nearly 20 years after their highest artistic peaks, they continue to add honorably to one of alt-rock’s key bodies of work.