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The Evangelist
by Robert Forster

Robert Forster reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 79 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.5 out of 10
based on 10 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 7 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Robert Forster's first album in 11 years also features songs written by his now-deceased Go-Between partner.

LABEL: Yep Roc
RELEASE DATE: 29 April 2008
DISCS: 1 disc
GENRE(S): Rock, Indie

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Uncut
The Evangelist isn’t a Go-Betweens album, but it’s more cohesive than any of Forster’s other solo albums, and more moving.
Read Full Review
90
All Music Guide
Bittersweet and poignant, The Evangelist is Robert Forster's most fully realized, seamless, and masterfully articulated solo record yet.
Read Full Review
80
Slant Magazine
The album impresses as much for its craft as for the way it allows Forster to honor McLennan's passing even as it advances his own work.
Read Full Review
80
Blender
Conjuring doubts and tenderness, Forster's writing has never been surer. [May 2008, p.76]
80
Q Magazine
There could be no finer tribute to a departed friend. [May 2008, p.135]
76
Pitchfork
It's not fair to Forster, of course, who rose to the occasion with his warmest and most welcoming solo album. But even beyond the imherant emotional baggage, songs such as 'Did She Overtake You' or the slightly bombastic 'Don't Touch Anything' still sound like they could have used a pass through someone else's filter.
Read Full Review
70
Spin
With his unassuming voice--like a more agreeable Lou Reed--and spare folk-rock tunes, he's got a gift for importing cosmic subjects like mortality ('Demon Days') and transcendence ('If It Rains') into vivid everyday vignettes, minus any cheesy melodrama.
Read Full Review
60
The Guardian
Although Forster's characterful, Australian waver gets under your skin, the sentiments of these songs won't do the same.
Read Full Review
60
PopMatters
It’s good to know he’s still in fine form and is going to keep on keepin’ on, but for now I’m more left waiting for the next Robert Forster album than able to really love this one.
Read Full Review
60
Mojo
The Evangelist is tinged with the voyeur's illicit thrill a Forster spies on his neighbours and loved ones, but these are slso some of the most direct songs he's written. [June 2008, p.114]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this album is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an8:
Ten songs, just like a Go-Betweens album: "Springhill Fair", "Talluah", "16 Lovers Lane", classic pop albums all, from the anti-Air Supply, and anti-AC/DC band from Brisbane, Australia. It's rare for a songwriter, late in his career, to still be in peak form, but the late Grant McLennan's "The Statue"("At night I haunt the boulevard/To the songs of Sacha") from "Ocean's Apart", the band's unfortunate swansong, challenged such legacy-making songs like "Cattle and Cane", "Bachelor Kisses", and my personal favorite, "Right Here". But life goes or, or is that "love goes on, anyway," and Robert Forster goes on, too. The title track will remind longtime fans of "Dive For Your Memory"(from "16 Lovers Lane"), with its opening melody set to a jauntier pace. "It Ain't Easy" pays tribute to McLennan, which is positioned near the end of "The Evangelist", but not the end itself. As if to say that he's still here, Forster delivers "From Ghost Town", an elegaic, but forward-thinking piano ballad that rocks like a funeral. "The Evangelist" is a solid album, a modest album, that honors Forster's fallen creative soulmate and friend, by not being too extravagant in sound, or galvanizing in vision. But this former Go-Betweener, won't go under.

Brandon M. gave it a10:
This is by far the best solo effort from Forster, if not the best album all year. The music is excellent through and through. There is an urgency here to the songs, but not in a jangly pop manner. The songs just feel like they oozed out from his soul. The music is often muted, the mood subdued, but every song unfolds with such precision and humble grandeur that it is impossible to walk away from this album unaffected. Some of the songs are a touching reminder of what we all lost when Grant McLennan died in 2006. Forster has found beauty and appreciation in such an untimely tragedy. It's not often that an album turns out to be so perfect from beginning to end, but this is one of them.

Hugh M. gave it a10:
As a long time admirer of the go-betweens, I was much saddened by the untimely death of Grant McLennan. What Robert has done is continue the legacy, and broaden it wonderfully. A terrific album!

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