Paul Kelly & the Coloured Girls: Gossip

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * * )

Unfolding the gatefold of the reissued double CD of Paul Kelly and band's 1987 album isn't as impressive as opening up the original double LP version.

But what's inside the CD makes much better sense - originally not all the songs could fit on one CD, so they left off three, including (duh) the title track.

The trio of Don't Harm the Messenger, Gossip and After the Show are now the final three songs on disc two.

That makes 24 tracks on an album that long-time fans will still argue is the best of the Australian singer-songwriter's long and quietly brilliant career.

It's certainly the best of his period when he was backed by the quartet the Coloured Girls (who consequentially became the Messengers when faced with Americans who didn't get the Lou Reed reference), an adaptable band who neatly combined pub-rocking power with sensitivity to Kelly's songs.

Despite the digital remastering this can sound a little dated around the edges (some songs suffer reverb overdoses and Stories of Me proclaims its era with its synthesized piano and wine bar saxophone as does I Won't Be Torn Apart).

But the best songs still resonate - the reggaefied blues of opener Last Train to Heaven; the grand jangle that is the ode to Melbourne Leaps of Bounds and to Kelly's original hometown, Adelaide; the morning after-in-Sydney ballad Randwick Bells; the brooding epic protest anthem Maralinga (Rainy Land) and the direct pop-rock of Before Too Long and Darling It Hurts among others.

That's a lot of variety, geography, and many a tale of a good bloke getting his heart broken one more time, to take in. But Gossip doesn't feel like a single album which got away on itself. Just a true blue Aussie classic.

Label: Mushroom