Robert Forster
Songs to Play
(Tapete Records)
There are people (especially in Scotland) who will fall upon this ten song collection of new work by one of the co-founders of Australia's Go-Betweens like ravenous beasts. It was no accident that the band's first UK release was via Postcard Records of Glasgow and the common inspiration Forster and Grant McLennan found in the music The Velvet Underground with Edwyn Collins and Orange Juice is as audible on Songs to Play as it was 35 years ago. But there is a vast distance between this album and Forster's the much darker The Evangelist, released in 2008, a year after McLennan's early death. During those seven years, Forster has worked in a producing capacity with younger musicians and two of those - Scott Bromley and Luke McDonald from The John Steel Singers - return the favour here, adding their multi-instrumental skills to those of drummer Matt Piele and violinist Karin Baumler. It sounds like a real band album (just one sense in which the title is very appropriate), recorded on analogue equipment in a retro-studio near Brisbane, with Forster on top form out front. From the lovely Let Me Imagine You to the surprising sixties bossa-beat of Love Is Where It Is, these songs are the perfect match of words and music. Those hungry-to-listen will not be disappointed.
Keith Bruce
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here