Robert Forster
Songs To Play
(Tapete Records)
4/5

Singer-songwriter Robert Forster’s first album in seven years is intelligent and mature guitar pop of the highest order.

There are a lot of welcome echoes of The Go-Betweens, the Australian indie darlings that Forster co-led with the late Grant McLennan.

The Dylanesque, whip-smart wordplay is sublime: “I mistook Memphis for a house in Surrey/ You can miss detail when you’re in a hurry,” he sings on fast-moving opener Learn to Burn.

Let Me Imagine You gently chides the imagination-shrinking nature of our 24/7 social media culture — “Please don’t Twitter/Let me imagine you” — while closer Disaster in Motion is a strange Lynchian tale about a tiny town, presumably in the Australian outback.

“Good things happen,” the 50-something contrarian flashes before explaining: “Kathy got married to Emmylou.”

A stunning triumph.

Craig Finn
Faith In The Future
(Partisan Records)
4/5

AS ITS title suggests, the second solo record from US singer-songwriter Craig Finn is about believing everything will be turn out OK in the end. Or, as he memorably sang in The Hold Steady, the rock band he’s most famous for fronting: “We Gotta Stay Positive!”

The album’s 10 guitar-led tracks illustrate why Finn is considered one of the best lyricists working today, with each song a short story in its own right.

His sympathetic sketches of flawed, downbeat characters are clearly indebted to fellow US romantic Bruce Springsteen, as is his penchant for naming women — Sarah, Sandra, Christine and Maggie — in his songs.

The jaunty Newmyer’s Roof was apparently inspired by a slightly surreal 9/11 memory, while closer I Was Doing Fine (Then a Few People Die) ends on a melancholic high of sorts.

It’s as personal and understated as The Hold Steady is overblown and bombastic.

Anna Von Hausswolff
The Miraculous
(City Slang)
4/5

IN 2013 Swedish singer-songwriter Anna Von Hausswolff’s astonishing Ceremony album garnered masses of critical acclaim and it was one of my albums of the yea.

The Miraculous once again stretches for the stars. Its mammoth ambition — based around the colossal sounds of the unique acusticum pipe organ built in Sweden — creates immense swells of high drama and emotion, bordering on a religious experience.

A challenging concept album about an unnamed mystical land Von Hausswolff’s parents used to tell her stories about when she a child, there’s a fantastical quality to the soundscapes and lyrics — reminiscent of Kate Bush and Joanna Newsom — while fellow Scandinavians Sigur Ros also seem an important touchstone.

Best of all is Come Wander With Me/Deliverance, a pounding, unhinged slice of what can only be described as heavy metal organ music. Weird, wonderful and utterly compelling.