1992’s Drift, the second studio album from Australian cult favorites the Apartments, is a tighter collection of tunes than the 1985 debut The Evening Visits. Less emotionally explosive and less immersed in reverb, Drift proves not much else has changed in the seven-year interim, except band members who differ from album to album. Peter Milton Walsh is still the singer-songwriter in charge and it’s his dour worldview that leads the attack. His singing is more assured, no longer prone to manic mood swings and off-key elocution. The transcendent pop of “Over,” with its soothing female backing vocals, hides the doom-laden lyrics. The luminous guitar jangle of “Knowing You Were Loved,” the sawing orchestration and staggered beats behind “Places Where the Night Is Long,” and the empathetic frustration of the also well-orchestrated “All His Stupid Friends” make for sublimely sophisticated pop music. One of the most talented songwriters of his generation, Walsh belongs alongside his fellow countrymen in the Go-Betweens as artists responsible for the highlights of the era.