05/08/2026
An announcement from Pete Paphides, Needle Mythology founder.
In the decades since we lost Grant McLennan, hindsight has only served to magnify the scale of his achievements. Both within and beyond The Go-Betweens, his was a unique authorial voice. As a voracious consumer of literature and cinema, he brought something of those disciplines to his own evolving songwriting gifts – a breadth of vision which revealed itself in earlier compositions such as Cattle and Cane and Bye Bye Pride.
For all of that, his 1991 solo debut album Watershed was a dazzlingly sure-footed statement of intent whose momentum propelled him into 1993’s Fireboy – an album described at the time by Trouser Press as “a near-perfect convergence of observant, passionate words and jangly, surging tunes.” Released in 1994, Horsebreaker Star elicited unanimous critical hosannas. Feted music critic Ned Raggett hymned Grant’s “ear for focused, sharp lyrical portraits of life and love” while Rolling Stone declared that its epic 24 song sweep marked him out as “one of the world’s great songwriters.”
Three years later, Grant returned with what would be his solo swan song. Perhaps his most immediate set of songs, In Your Bright Ray harvested superlatives from all quarters. Speaking for many, AllMusic’s Jack Rabid enthused: “It is as warm and soft as a cake out of the oven, a just-washed blanket, and an Eskimo coat.”
Exactly twenty years previously, it had been Robert Forster who – in search of a McCartney to his Lennon – persuaded the teenage Grant to take up the bass guitar. Now, exactly twenty years after Grant’s heartbreaking passing, Needle Mythology is honoured to announce a reissue programme which will see all four of his solo albums receive fully remastered and annotated vinyl and CD reissues.
These will begin with the simultaneous release of Watershed and Fireboy, to be followed shortly afterwards by Horsebreaker Star and In Your Bright Ray. Needless to say, all four albums will be released with the same loving attention to detail and quality as every other artefact bearing the Needle Mythology imprimatur.
Pete.
Release dates and pre-order details will be announced in due course. If you would like to be the first to find out about these and other releases from our label, please sign up to our mailing list, which can be found at www.needlemythology.com
