If his last album (2008’s The Evangelist) saw Robert Forster (the Aussie singer-songwriter, not the American actor) processing the sudden death of his Go-Betweens partner Grant McLennan from two years before, this return to the fold finds him more at peace with his status as a fifty-something cult artist. When he sings, “I Love Myself and I Always Have”, he’s neither arrogant nor boastful, just refreshingly direct and disarming, qualities inherent in each of these ten beautifully crafted but unfussy miniatures. And, at this late stage in his career, he still finds inspiration in seeking out new sounds for his musical palette, such as the spry bossa nova of “Love Is Where It Is” or the Latin accents adding verve to “Songwriters On The Run” and “A Poet Walks”—the latter a charming character sketch-cum-memoir that no one else could have written.
Favorite tracks: “Learn To Burn”, “Let Me Imagine You”, “A Poet Walks”, “I Love Myself and I Always Have”
“A Poet Walks”:
Haunted Jukebox 