• Record Label: Yep Roc
  • Release Date: Apr 29, 2008
User Score
8.4

Universal acclaim- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 9
  3. Negative: 1 out of 9

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  1. ChadS.
    May 29, 2008
    8
    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 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. Expand
  2. BrandonM.
    May 20, 2008
    10
    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 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. Expand
  3. HughM.
    May 19, 2008
    10
    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!

Awards & Rankings

Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 11
  2. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. Bittersweet and poignant, The Evangelist is Robert Forster's most fully realized, seamless, and masterfully articulated solo record yet.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.