(Beggars Banquet)
"Well the medallion's back" and Robert Forster is "drifting back/to the nightclubs and the stage" -- Robert Forster rocking out on "Cryin' Love", a fuzzy electric guitar underlining such gems as "I'm going to come to your house/because I want to see/He cannot be as good looking as me".
Here, then, is Warm Nights, Robert Forster's fourth album since the breakup of The Go-Betweens. Produced by Edwyn Collins, of 80's funky- pop Orange Juice fame (read: another new wave band that sank without a trace), the album is warmer and less moody than his first solo album Danger In The Past. It's also a far better album than his second album: the mediocre Calling From a Country Phone. (Robert's third album was a quirky collection of covers, I Had a New York Girlfriend, featuring a wonderful take of Martha & The Muffins "Echo Beach").
This album, like his previous ones, is a vehicle for his lyrics, which have always been his strong point. You must listen to the album at least once with the lyric sheet in hand. Although it should be said in passing that this insert is a casebook of modern typography disasters: show me where it is said "orange text on a pink background is a Good Thing".
The country sound that dominated Calling... is still present, but kept in check, present mainly via the pedal-steel guitar that weaves through most of the songs. This, combined with a rather laidback Charlie Watts style of drumming gives an overall feeling of indolence. This is especially prominent on the opening track "I Can Do". It takes a few listens to acquire a taste for this album, but the effort is ultimately rewarding. There is a quiet urgency to Robert's voice in "Warm Nights", together with a delicate melody picked out note by note on an acoustic guitar that could easily be overlooked on a first listening.
In the Soul-laid-bare-department, a realm where Robert is king, there is "Snake Skin Lady", and when he says "Why must I see?", he captures in that one phrase whether it wouldn't be easier to just be anaesthetised by "Queensland grass", "coming out of the homes as I pass". The siren song of the suburban couch potato.
Another high point of the album is a glorious reworking of an early Go-Betweens track, co-written with Grant McLennan: "Rock 'n' Roll Friend". Robert's vocals sound tired and world-weary, yet passionate at the same time, and the track is propelled along by a tambourine and tremolo Wurlitzer. The album is worth buying for this one alone.
If that isn't enough, the proof of Robert's brilliance is the track "Fortress". It's a case of "Q: Why did you do that?", "A: Because I can". Imagine a drunken tuba, oom-pah-ing along to Robert demurely delivering the most obscure verse of the album "There's an image of you, that's always there before me/There's an outline that I can touch/There's an image of you/Parallel above me/You're a lover I never want to rush". Complete with a trombone solo no-one else could get away with, it appears to be dashed off effortlessly. An amazing piece of work.
There are a couple of near-misses, such as "Jug of Wine", with its trombone parp-parping away in the background, over a bubbly Mancini riff a la "Baby Elephant Walk", but the lyrics, while on paper look good, simply unanchor the song and leave it adrift.
The other flat spot is "On a Street Corner", a minimalist ballad, no drums, only a acoustic guitar and a brief hint of cello. Boring. Skip it, you won't missing anything. All the faster to get to the closing track, "I'll Jump": some of Robert's finest lyrics wrapped up in his closest approximation of what a three minute pop song should be.
In summary, dedicated Robert Forster fans will have already bought this album and will be really happy with it. I know I am. Whichever way you look at it, it is his best album to date. I can't help feeling just a little depressed though, because it's not the killer album we've all been waiting for since the demise of the Go-Betweens.
The official Robert Forster home page that runs at a fast clip, but contains little information, is at http://www.beggars.com/rforster/rforster.html The unofficial home page for Robert Forster contains heaps of info, and the tour date info appears to be kept up to date regularly. Be warned, it's a rather dreadful thing featuring gratuitous use of frames and the dreaded scrolling JavaScript banner. Combined with slow throughput from CompuServe at the best of times, using it can be an exercise in frustration. Still, the official site points to it, so I take this to mean that it has Beggars Banquet's blessing. See http://ourworld.compuserve.com/Skeleto/homepage.htm
