Australian bard Robert Forster is a bit like the widescreen version of Richard Hawley. Both share the melancholy, the drama and the stoical shrug of the shoulders as the singer gets on with his life.
Musically they both inhabit a similar place that rings with echoes of 1950’s orchestras and American rock and country. But where Hawley’s voice usually seems to come from a private place, Forster’s world is larger than life and full of drama. A track like ‘Demon Days’ is a widescreen panorama of emotions.
Forster, one half of the writing team that catapulted Oz band The Go Betweens to cult status and moderate pop stardom in the 1980s, is an accomplished songsmith. If anything, he is maybe a tad too much of a perfectionist. Careful arrangements and a very polished sound even reign in a potential bar rocker like ‘Pandanus’ .
Forster’s writing buddy Grant McLennan died in 2006. The track ‘Demon Days’ on this album is one of the last tracks they worked on together.
Polished and unhurried, ‘The Evangelist’ makes for a relaxed listening.
Listen to ‘The Evangelist’ and download the album from iTunes.
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