Album of the week: Robert Forster

Published on Friday 18 April 2008 16:27

ROBERT FORSTER The Evangelist **** Tag 5 Records TAG011, £8.99

Forster's first solo album since the unfortunately premature death of Grant McLennan two years ago is unsurprisingly melancholy, part mourning for his partner in the Go Betweens, part for himself.

The last song, 'Demon Days', co-written by the pair, is as fine as anything the band created, the telling line being "Something's not right, something's gone wrong," set to a haunting and wistful melody. It could be the dark musical mirror image of Louis Armstrong singing 'Wonderful World'.

It follows the record's most glorious moment, the heavy like a cloud 'If It Rains', which opens the album, but never quite regains that intensity thereafter. 'Don't Touch Anything' and the title track sound a little weary after exploring the same territory, but things do pick up with the mock hoe down of 'It Ain't Easy', with Forster singing: "I write this tune to words he wrote on a full moon", while fiddles scratch away in the background.

Matters get even less emotionally simple in the closing elegy 'From Ghost Town', replete with an aching refrain and the density of the Blue Nile at that group's masterful peak.

It would all be too much without the occasional sunny spell, and Forster obliges with the shimmering 'Let Your Light In, Babe'.

It's hardly skipping the light fandango but it does provide the contrast required to let the serious stuff sink in.

Download this: Demon Days, From Ghost Town