release date: Feb. 3, 2023
format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Robert Forster, Karin Bäumler, Louis Forster
label: Tapete Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "She's a Fighter" - 2. "Tender Years" - 5. "I Don't Do Drugs I Do Time" - 8. "Go Free"
8th studio album by Robert Forster in his own name follows three years after the fine Inferno (Mar. 2019) and is like that released on the German label, Tapete. His wife Karin Baümler plays a more vital part than normally, as she has become the center of these new songs after having gone through cancer treatment. Aparently, most songs were already written before her diagnosis, but both album title and the first song here sets a tone that nicely fits with the rest of the songs.
Forster is as always a good narrator, and for that this album should be valued, although, you could argue that he doesn't hand us much new with this one. The first track is a bit off in respect to the colour of the album with it's rougher and energetic starting tone, which in some ways point back in time and reminds us where he began a long lasting musical career with Grant McLennan. The rest is more so-so - nothing daring in style and more simplistic folk with Forster strumming his guitar as support to his personal stories and not a whole lot in musical arrangements other than Adele Pickvance or his son Louis on bass as support to his and Karin's vocal harmonies. It's also a family thing with Robert and Karin being joined by their son and daughter Loretta, who plays second guitar.
I'm sure folk enthusiasts - people who send thanks to almighty Dylan - will embrace this as a warm and mature classic-styled album, but for me, I've heard better from this songwriter giant and it just doesn't provide me with enough substance, melody nor originality to have it on rotation that often.
[ The Guardian 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,5 / 10 stars ]
