ROBERT FORSTER
Although commonly considered the darker, artier half of the creative force of the Go-Betweens — the Lennon to Grant McLennan‘s McCartney, as it were — singer, songwriter, and guitarist Robert Forster has a knack for crafty pop songs along with the brooding ballads he contributed to the Go-Betweens‘ albums, while his solo career — that began with 1990’s Danger in the Past — blended a healthy mix of both styles. By the time the ’80s band reunited in 2000, Forster had issued three more solo albums, including the self-produced Calling from a Country Phone (1993). The band’s reunion netted three critically acclaimed albums before McLennan‘s untimely death in 2006. Forster soldiered on as a music journalist and author, then resumed recording and releasing uniquely thoughtful and melodic solo albums that included 2008’s McLennan-haunted The Evangelist, 2015’s rambling Songs to Play, and 2023’s emotionally raw The Candle and the Flame, an album of songs about aging and life experiences informed in part by wife and musical partner Karin Bäumler’s concurrent struggles with cancer.
