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Music CD - Robert Forster: The Evangelist
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Music CD: The Evangelist
Artist: Robert Forster
List Price: $15.99
Our Price: $10.38
Your Save: $ 5.61 ( 35% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Yep Roc Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. If It Rains
2. Demon Days
3. Pandanus
4. Did She Overtake You
5. The Evangelist
6. Let Your Light In Babe
7. A Place To Hideaway
8. Don t Touch Anything
9. It Ain t Easy
10. From Ghost Town
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0634457218628
Label: Yep Roc Records
Manufacturer: Yep Roc Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Yep Roc Records
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Studio: Yep Roc Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: There's a sweet sadness which haunts you.
Comment: Robert 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.
It features ten songs. Three songs were co-written by Forster's songwriting partner Grant McLennan, who passed away in May 2006.
The Evangelist is produced by Mark Wallis and Dave Ruffy who worked on "Oceans Apart" for Forster.
Over the course of their long partnership Forster and McLennan had influenced each other to the point where their creativity had blurred.
The Evangelist isn't a Go-Betweens album, but it's more cohesive than any of Forster's other solo albums, and more moving. Go-Betweens' bassist Adele Pickvance and drummer Glen Thompson are joined by Audrey Riley, whose string arrangements enlivened "Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express". With Mark Wallis and Dave Ruffy producing, he opts for an acoustic sound, opening with the elegiac "If It Rains".
The absence of drums makes the song sound like a hymn of defiance, like in the clunky metaphors of the title track
"Pandanus"'s low-slung guitar riff and droopy drawl typify the fearsomely fey Robert Forster's slack power.
Things do lighten up in the middle - with the clunky metaphors of the title track and with "Did She Overtake You", a mysterious lyric about a broken romance - but the heart of the record is located in the songs co-written with, or about, Grant.
It would all be too much without the occasional sunny spell, and Forster obliges with the skiffly, 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.
"It Ain't Easy", with that bayou hoedown, finds him in uncharacteristically upbeat mode, with Forster singing: "I write this tune to words he wrote on a full moon", while fiddles scratch away in the background. The song is a straight tribute to a lost friend, delivered like a train song, but it's overshadowed by "Demon Days".
The song, 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. The sweet sadness of the tune and chorus were provided by McLennan, but Robert Forster has extended the song into a fateful remembrance.
But save your tears for the closing number, the sparse piano vamp of "From Ghost Town", which bids McLennan a gracious farewell.
The track is an elegy with an aching refrain and emotional density, it's a meditation on loss, suspended on a plaintive piano figure.
"He knew more than I knew, and I hated what he hated too, this world", Robert sings. It's lovely, and lonely, and utterly heartbreaking.
Sadly, that "Demon Days" 's refrain, "Something's gone wrong, something's not right", reflects the album from thereon in.
It requires repeated listenings.
It's a "grower"
My favourite tracks: : "Demon Days" and "From Ghost Town"
Oceans Apart
Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Ghost and the Evangelist: Channeling McLennan & restarting a career
Comment: "The Evangelist" is a crucial step in Robert Forster's career: it's his 1st solo album in 12 years, and 1st release since the untimely death of Grant McLennan, his longtime song-writing partner in the Go-Betweens. As such, it's an album that shows Forster in the process of essentially grieving the loss of McLennan, reflecting, and getting back on his feet. The impetus for this record came in part from 3 unfinished songs McLennan began before his passing. Forster selected and finished these songs, and built the rest of the album around them with his own material.
While not flawless, it's an emotionally moving album of tremendous depth. At least half the songs go for slower, reflective moods, with alluring chamber pop string arrangements and acoustic guitar, giving the album an almost pastoral feel and gentle pace not unlike sections of John Cale's masterpiece, "Paris 1919."
The spare opener "If It Rains" recalls the more restrained moments of Forster's debut, while symbolically reaching back in time before Grant's death to foreshadow the tragedy that lay ahead. Then comes the lushly gorgeous and achingly sad "Demon Days," one of McLennan's three tunes, on which Forster sings in a gentle and tender way, sounding as if he's choking up, on the verge of tears. The refrain (written by McLennan) "Something's gone wrong, something's not right," is especially poignant, and oddly chilling given the song's context. Few artists today make music *this* emotionally resonant.
The closing, "From Ghost Town" is a beautiful eulogy for McLennan. It's both a brutally honest and tenderly loving portrait of a man with whom Forster was extremely close. Musically, the piano-driven song is appropriately haunting and beautiful, with an elegantly sad chord progression and moody, impeccably tasteful string arrangement.
Of the more upbeat songs, "Did She Overtake You" is easily a standout, with its melodically inventive chord progression and rocky, slightly off-kilter feel. Catchy and cool, it might be the album's most Go-Betweens-esque song. "Don't Touch Anything" isn't up-tempo, but exercises Forster's Dylan obsession in spades while building up a dense, lumbering force. "Pandanus" is nice, simple pop that recalls the Go-Betweens' 2003 album "Bright Yellow Bright Orange" in both its sound and stripped-down melodic sensibilities.
There are a few low points: "It Aint' Easy" is flimsy, generic filler to these ears, while curiously, "Let Your Light in Babe" sounds like an inferior and sped-up remake of the great "Born to a Family" from the Go-Betweens' final album, "Oceans Apart." But these are the only two blemishes on what is an otherwise fine record. (Oddly, these are the other two McLennan songs Forster chose to complete).
"Calling From a Country Phone" remains my favorite Forster solo album, but "The Evangelist" easily runs a close second. While "The Evangelist" can certainly be seen as a kind of closure (for the death of both the Go-Betweens and McLennan), I hope that it also proves to be a foundation on which this consistently talented and intriguing artist reestablishes a brilliant solo career.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The spirits of both McLennan and The Go-Betweens are keenly felt
Comment: With the Go-Between's now forever sundered by the untimely passing of Grant McLennan, Robert Forster has now gone forward with his fifth solo album, "The Evangelist." The spirits of both Mr. McLennan and The Go-Betweens are keenly felt here: "The Evangelist" features the last three writing credits penned by Forster and McLennan, and both Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson, the other two members of the latter version of the band, ply their skills on multiple instruments, in addition to their respective duties on bass and drums. Still, it's hard not to be listening for McLennan's guitar or voice here.
Without becoming mired in sentimentality, Mr. Forster pays tribute to the late McLennan, in this well-produced, great sounding recording. There is enough variation in the tone and tempo among the songs to keep you paying attention or from feeling stymied, though some songs seem a bit undone. For example, the bright airy, Let Your Light In, Babe---the most uptempo track here---is followed by the darkly, dry, A Place to Hide Away, a solo number with just Forster and his guitar that seems somewhat out of place.
After several listens, I keep being drawn to a number of the songs---If It Rains Demon Days, It Ain't Easy, and Let Your Light In, Babe---and feel certain I'll be playing this CD quite a bit, though it may not be everyday fare.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Robert Forster s first album in 11 years, The Evangelist finds the Go-Betweens co-founder as winsome and haunting as ever. Nearly two years after the death of Grant McLennan, his fellow Go-Between and writing partner of 30 years, Forster has produced and album that is both wildly progressive and haunted by the ghost of his artistic soul mate. ''Demon Days,'' co-written with McLennan shortly before he died, is an all too telling spine tingling journey into oblivion. ''Pandanus'' and ''Did She Overtake You?'' are lively juggernauts that delightfully reprise the rhythmic tensions of Spring Hill Fair. ''The Evangelist'' is a wistful cousin to ''He Lives My Life'' (from The Friends of Rachel Worth) and ''From Ghost Town'' is a deeply personal and poignant farewell to a lost brother. Throughout, The Evangelist is a masterpiece of honesty and compassion. Forster himself describes The Evangelist this way, ''I wasn t sure if I was ever
going to make another record but this summer it just materialized. It s a direct
record. I ve written seven of the songs, and three are co-written with Grant.
Adele and Glenn from The Go-Betweens are with me. It s not Oceans Apart
2 it s something else, but with trails going into the past and I m proud of it.''
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