Strawberries

Over the course of his long and storied career, both as a member of the Go-Betweens and on his own, Robert Forster has never been the kind of artist to stand still. He has continually looked for new stories to tell and new ways to tell them, even as his deadpan, slightly randy professor-like delivery has remained the same. After delving deeply into his personal life on 2023s The Candle and the Flame, Forster turns to storytelling on 2025s Strawberries. The tales are not necessarily drawn from his life, though there are times when its pretty clear hes injected himself into the text, as on "Such a Shame," where the narrators agent tells him he always made promoters lives miserable due to his willful iconoclasm, or on the giddy "Strawberries," which feels like a slice of his happy home life. Instead, he sings of missed connections, a tryst between old lovers, the electrical jolt that love can give, the travails of a lonely old rock star, and tenderly details a doomed crush. To help him out, he cashed in on a suggestion Peter Moren of Peter Bjorn and John floated his way and decamped to Sweden for six days of recording at the groups Ingrid studio. Recorded mostly live with a small band, Strawberries has a lovely warm and inviting feel with the simple guitar-bass-drums lineup bolstered by subtle keyboards, percussion, and the occasional sax. Moren proves to be a lively foil, adding some rippling guitar solos, yearning background vocals, and skilled production. Forster recorded his vocals live during the tracking of the songs, and he sounds very present and unvarnished, especially when he veers off his usual drawl to employ stage whispers, yodels, and the occasion interjection. It all makes for a perfect union of fascinating lyrics, stick-in-the-head melodies, and perfectly sympathetic playing. To say that sounds a lot like a Go-Betweens record is not far off the mark, and the feel is similar to that of The Friends of Rachel Worth, especially on tunes like the rumbling rocker "Good to Cry" or the insistent "All of the Time," where the small combo really starts rocking. On the lovely jangle pop slice of melancholy "Tell It Back to Me" that starts the album, Morens backing vocals even conjure up the sadly missed presence of Grant McLennan. Along with these more familiar sonic climes, Forster does some nice stretching, like on the glimmering piano ballad "Such a Shame" and on "Diamonds," a dramatic ballad that has all the grandeur, dynamics, and noisy energy of a prime Nick Cave track. Throughout the record, Forsters lyrics display the intense wit and penetrating humanity theyve always exhibited, and the stories he tells are certain to stand up to repeated listens, likely punching the same emotional buttons every time. Its relatively easy to keep a music career going once you reach a certain level; its much more daunting to continue making records that forge a new creative path or write songs that explore new territory. Strawberries does both of those things and proves that Robert Forster is no nostalgia act -- hes still creating records as intense, meaningful, and dangerous as anything hes done in the past. ~ Tim Sendra