And a river ran, and a train ran, and a dream ran…
I’d like to come out with guns blazing and make some
sweeping statement about how The
Evangelist is the best album released this century. I’d like to say how you
are a fool if you have never heard this album and an even bigger fool if you don’t
like it. I’d like to say that God himself won’t help you if “Demon Days”
doesn’t make you a slightly better person. In reality, this album is so obscure and understated that it doesn’t really matter what I say. And also, I
have just said it all anyway.
2008, I don’t get that year. It feels close and yet so
far away. Close – because it’s hard to come to terms with the fact that Grant
McLennan has been gone for eight years now. Far away – because music-wise
Robert hasn’t released anything substantial since The Evangelist. And yet one can only imagine how hard it is for him
to write music in a world without Grant. Even in the 90’s, when they released a
string of largely underappreciated solo albums, they were operating within each
other’s sight. It was, you felt, just a means to a new beginning. Which came in
2000 with The Friends Of Rachel Worth,
a record that demonstrated once and for all what a comeback album should sound
like.
The songs that make up The Evangelist were meant for a new Go-Betweens album, and that’s a
disturbing thought. It was produced by the same people (Mark Wallis and Dave
Ruffy) who produced 2005’s Oceans Apart.
And perhaps the most poignant thing of all: The
Evangelist has three last songs/melodies written by Grant McLennan. The
melodic genius of “Demon Days”, so disarming in its heart-wrenching simplicity.
The upbeat “Let Your Light In, Babe” that – I guarantee you – is one of the
greatest ways to start a new day. The fast and bittersweet “It Ain’t Easy”
whose violin near the two-minute mark is one of the most emotional moments in
popular music. Lyrically, Forster dives for your heart.
Wallis and Ruffy don’t try to recreate
the flashy, colourful production of Oceans
Apart. For all its rich instrumentation (much of it is provided by Adele
Pickvance and Glenn Thompson whose album from 2012 should be in your
collection), The Evangelist does feel
very understated. The charismatic minimalism of the opening “If It Rains” is the
depth of Forster’s songwriting fully exposed. “A Place To Hide Away” is
basically Robert strumming his acoustic guitar to a pretty three-chord tune and
clever escapist lyrics. There’s also the wistful title track drenched in
delicate orchestration rather than memorable vocal hooks. There’s the anthemic
“Don’t Touch Anything” that alternates huge organ sound with unforgettable
lyrical gems (the glove line is especially priceless). There are two more
brilliant pop songs in “Pandanus” and “Did She Overtake You”, and that’s about
it.
But not quite. Right when you think every possible
peak has been reached, along comes “From Ghost Town” and haunts you down to your
very guts. Christ if The Evangelist is
to be his last album, it is some way to say goodbye. I’d give it all, though, to have
another album from him. Robert Forster is one of the world’s very few artists
able to prove that pop music can take on a personality. And vice versa. The Evangelist is his most fully realised statement.
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