Getaway (2LP+CD) [Reissue]

2001’s Getaway maybe best illustrates whatever mercurial, inexplicable musical power
animates The Clean. After the band’s initial rush of activity between 1978 and 1982,
the trio lay dormant until the end of the ’80s, when a string of reunion shows inspired
the Kilgours and Scott to start recording again. After three well-received albums in
the frst half of the nineties—1990’s Vehicle, 1994’s Modern Rock, and 1996’s Unknown
Country—The Clean disappeared again until the end of the decade, when another tour
inspired another record.

Speed and spontaneity defned Getaway. Robert says, “I remember writing ‘Silence or
Something Else’ while the others went for a long walk. It was done by the time they
got back. I probably would have gone for a straighter version, but I still like it.” David
remembers, “Hamish wrote the instrumental ‘Jala’ in about fve minutes in a motel
outside of Turangi.” At one point in the process, Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan and Georgia
Hubley were visiting from America, and they ended up on the record too.

A live version of the pulsing, soaring “Stars”—along with a couple of other Getaway
songs and Clean classics like “Fish,” “Side On,” “Quickstep,” and “Point That Thing
Somewhere Else”—appear on the rare 2003 album Syd’s Pink Wiring System. That
record is included with the Getaway reissue, along with the more experimental, pianodriven
EP Slush Fund, from the same era. These bonus tracks reinforce the idea of
the Getaway-era Clean as especially plugged in, generating inspired and beautiful music
almost on instinct.