Robert Forster – Strawberries – Album Review
by Killian Laher

The former Go-Betweens man follows up 2023’s The Candle and the Flame relatively quickly with an album recorded with a band in Sweden.  It starts out very sprightly with the jangle pop pair of Tell It Back To Me and Good To Cry.  The former song, in particular, sounds like classic Robert Forster, with glorious intertwining guitars and harmonica.  The tone shifts to elegiac with Breakfast on the Train.  It’s very reminiscent of some of Bob Dylan’s ballads. Most of the Time and Highlands are just two that spring to mind.  Throw in Forster uttering the word “fuck” seemingly out of the blue and you have an eight minute track that just breezes by.

Strawberries is almost ridiculously cheesy, a duet between Forster and his wife Karin Baumler, while All The Time is a brass-enhanced chugging rocker.  But it’s the relatively soft, sad Such A Shame that really connects.  It’s a simple song with a lovely, albeit sad, melody and is one of the best songs here.  A shift again for an intriguing mariachi-style gay love song, Foolish I Know, Forster playing the lead, being warned off “he’s straight, so just let it go, he’s not my kind”.  Describing the final track, Diamonds, makes it sound like a mess, taking the guitar line from Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth, before a heavy chorus with a really odd falsetto from Robert Forster.  A mess, definitely, but it works.

Although Robert Forster is in his late sixties, there’s an almost youthful enthusiasm about these songs.  Unlike some of his albums, it’s not a cohesive listen, but all the better for it.

Strawberries