Robert Forester

Warm Nights (Beggars Banquet)
by Nik Rainey

At this late date, it’s a distinct pleasure to hear someone playing pop free of conceptual gimcracks and favoring mood over brood. Those who recall Forster’s old band, the Go-Betweens, know of what I speak, and his latest solo album (produced and played on by old Rough Trade labelmate Edwyn Collins) carries on in that increasingly rare tradition. It’s lovely, tasteful stuff that evokes the temperate feelings implied by the title – listening to this is like walking through the streets of your town at dusk, enveloped by the radiance in the air and being pulled along by that bittersweet twang in your stomach that makes you feel, for a fleeting moment at least, that all is right with the world. Those of you who haven’t thrust your fingers down your throat after that last sentence will love this record.