1. Goodbye Girl
A friend of mine at the time often referred to herself as ‘The Goodbye Girl’ in reference to a string of bad break ups she’d recently gone through, and I loved that title, but I wrote the narrative from the perspective of a character not long for this world, whose idea of happiness was waiting for him on the other side, or at least, elsewhere.
2. Armies Against Me
We recorded and released Armies as a single to little fanfare in November of 2002. But a well timed email from our former manager to one of the music directors of triple j asking him to give it spin changed everything. I later heard the only other time triple j had had such an overwhelming response to a song by a new Australian band was the first time they played Tomorrow by Silverchair. Within a year we’d toured stadiums supporting American arena-rock bands Live and Train, and played the Falls Festival and Big Day Out. Armies came in at number 21 on the triple j hottest 100 that year.
3. Firing Squad
I remember one reviewer in Beat Magazine saying it sounded like Live (the same Live we’d toured with a year earlier) and I remember being horrified. Nevertheless it was the lead single when the album was released, debuted at #1 on triple j’s request fest, and always went down well live even if it did sound like er… Live.
4. Sunlight
Oh to be young and feel love’s keen sting. Sigh.
5. So Broken
I remember the first time I showed this to the guys and we played it through we were like ‘Yeah, this is awesome. It sounds a bit like The Dead Salesman.’ It doesn’t.
6. Life Sentence
I wrote this around the same time as Armies Against Me. I especially love Dom’s drum fill that comes in a bar too late when the last chorus kicks in. The song was our follow up single to Armies and the EP of the same name spent a few weeks in the ARIA Top 100 singles chart. It also made triple j’s Hottest 100 at no.73 in 2003.
7. Twelve Months of Winter
One of the last tracks written for the album, and for a long time my favourite. By this stage I’d fallen deeply under the alt-country spell.
8. Clay Pigeons
Entering dangerous power ballad territory here. There is some magic in Dan’s guitar work though, and I was writing the lyrics when visiting landmarks in our hometown.
9. Self Destruct in 5
The very last song written for the album, and pretty pop by Epicure standards. Initially it had a distinct reggae feel, but I’ve always considered reggae to be the devil’s music so we gave it the Jack Johnson treatment instead. Which is of course still the devil’s music. The song came in at no. 64 on the Hottest 100 that year.
10. Rainy Day
One of the earliest songs on the album and almost didn’t make the album. But Dean Shannon’s solo on the keys is incredible and was a feature of our live shows at the time.
11. No-one’s Listening
This song lives strongest in my memory because of the way Heath McCurdy played it. Heath joined the band mid-tour as we were launching the album around the country. His first show was sold out at The Corner Hotel, with about a week to learn the songs.
12. Distant Seas
A sad song about a very definite goodbye… a bittersweet way to end. Dan’s guitar is beautiful on this. Our best is already behind us but we don’t know it yet.
13. Over Her Shoulder
Originally the ‘secret’ track on the album which rightfully takes its place as a proper track on the vinyl re-issue, and on reflection it’s one of the best songs we wrote. It was written by Dan and myself, with healthy nods to Dave Rawlings and co.
EPICURE launch The Goodbye Girl 2LP at Northcote Social Club on Saturday May 2.
