John Foster takes music packaging very seriously. He has deconstructed the design of the recording industry through his personal work and his books, Maximum Page Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport) and the upcoming For Sale: Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW) as well as a monograph of Sub Pop’s Art Director, Jeff Kleinsmith, slated for publication by the label in 2008.

He will be poking and prodding various albums on a weekly basis so please be sure to keep an eye out!

This week’s victims:

Robert Forster “The Evangelist”

Is it worth listening to no matter what it looks like? I will come right out and say it – I miss Grant McLennan more than I have any right to. Hometown popsters The Caribbean put it perfectly when they sang sweetly in the middle of “The Go From Tactical” that “you’re gonna have to stop crying at the chorus of your favorite Go-Betweens song because they’re gone.” The truth is that I’m just not ready to stop yet. Forming one of the most potent one two punches since Lennon and McCartney, McLennan shared songwriting duties in the criminally under-appreciated band of bitter romantics from Down Under with the more arty and oblique Robert Forster. Both proved to be popsmiths of the highest order as well as capable of darker turns. What was undeniable was that they brought out the best in one another’s work. When the band dissolved under the pressure of critical acclaim failing to produce mega record sales in 1990, both had solo albums at the ready.

One would assume that they had been hoarding their best material but perhaps the spirit of competition got the best of them as the final Go-Between’s disc “16 Lovers Lane” is spectacular from start to finish, while both efforts under their own names would be hit or miss affairs. McLennan would brush against his previous heights with his final solo disc “In Your Bright Ray” before the band were to re-form in 2000 and then come to a final act with his sudden passing in 2006.

Forster used his solo outings to strip down his instrumentation to the point that often there somehow managed to be little left but his cutting wit and dry phrasing. Shamefully his US label refused to release his second disc and when he did have something for them it was an album full of covers. Granted, his singing and playing style managed to make them all sound as if they were his own but it was a strange outing for someone so ingrained in songwriting as an outlet. He would re-find his footing with the help of Edwyn Collins on “Warm Nights” but by then The Go-Betweens reunion was starting to take shape. Now a decade on, Grant’s death has forced him to go it alone once again. The result is “The Evangelist” that features the final three songs the pair worked on together.

It goes without saying that I want to like this. When the subtle chording and Leonard Cohen vibe seeps into “Demon Days” I know that I will. Forster hits some familiar heights on tracks like the busy bass induced “Did She Overtake You” and when the joyfully strummed McLennan/Forster penned “Let Your Light In, Babe” arrives, you are instantly glad that he included their final work together. As always, the lyrics are short, yet literate and full of tiny details. He hasn’t lost his touch in the least and any Go-Betweens fan would do well to check this out. However, I do need to add that the songs work best when listened to individually. This makes little sense of course until you realize that the duo often tracked their songs to break up one another’s on the albums prior. I keep waiting to hear Grant’s sweet voice countering Robert’s arch delivery, yet it never comes and I know it never will.

Credit: “Designed by Brooke Sietinsons, Photography by Andy Gotts”

Any signs of creative interference in the design process by the artist? Not that one can see.

Does the look fit the sound? Sietinsons is a folkie herself, based in Philadelphia. The swirled woodcut can be seen as appealing to her sensibilities as well as appropriate to the title. Gotts high contrast photo plays up Forster’s thin and serious face and gives him a slickness, in a way that was likely unintended, but works none-the-less. Surrounded by an angelic arch of old type book favorite Graphique (or some new digital approximation) the presentation isn’t fancy, but then again it doesn’t need to be. Very much like the sturdy songs held within. This no-nonsense approach continues with centered type of non-varying weight and size simply laying the information before you. Small ornamental touches from the wood swirls serve as accents, but never infringe on the task at hand.

The printing even holds to this principle, using only black and silver with a clever underprint of the black on the cover to make the swirls seemingly come and go in the light by nullifying the reflection from the silver ink in places. The disc label itself allows a little more texture to enter in and is made up solely of the ornamental swirls. The booklet continues this feel with stark portraits of the other players and an intriguingly rough bird drawing on the inside back cover. It also poses the title as if written as a novel: “The Evangelist by Robert Forster” which suits the literary nature of the lyrics quite well.

To be honest, upon picking this package up I was under whelmed at best. But this analysis when comparing it to the music contained within is slowly winning me over. Maybe once I finally let go of the memory of Forster’s past, I can fully enjoy his present.

Final score (out of 10): 7.0 design 7.0 for the music

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