It is impossible to speak about this album without bringing up the context. Which is gruesome, almost unbearably so. Robert's wife, Karin, was diagnosed with cancer prior to the recording sessions for The Candle and the Flame. Most of the songs had actually been written before that, but that fact becomes immaterial three seconds into this album. The album is informed by that shadow, the struggle, the hope.
Karin actually appears on this album, alongside Robert's children (who are both featured in the video for the album's blistering two-minute opener "She's A Fighter"), Adele Pickvance (who has played bass on quite a few of Forster's and Go-Betweens' albums) and Scott Bromiley and Luke McDonald (both from the John Steel Singers). I only mention every musician who plays on The Candle and the Flame because the instrumental coda of the autobiographical "Tender Years" is the greatest minute I will hear all year.
Musically, the album is Robert Forster at his most stripped down. Lyrically, at his most confessional. It is, first and foremost, a folk album. The arrangements are mostly gentle and stark and the tunes would almost appear too simple were they not infused with Forster's signature songwriting charisma. That vocal hook which highlights the last line of the verses in "The Road" - it is exactly what makes Robert Forster one of the greatest songwriters living today. Or the lines which open the short but striking "There's a Reason to Live":
There is also this beautiful jangly guitar hook at the end of the chorus, but really, it is all about his writing. If you can some up with something like that - you are in a league of your own. Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of a couple of somewhat lacklustre country-tinged ballads which seem a little faceless musically (both "I Don't Do Drugs, I Do Time" and "It's Only Poison" display Robert's fascination with the music of Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt). However, when his personality shines through, like on the closing piece of rock and roll confessional titled "When I Was A Young Man", he hits harder than anyone.
If you are looking for a fuller sound, there is only the deceptively upbeat "Always" that could count as a genuine pop song. Most of the rest is not about the sound - but, chiefly and supremely, about the songs. Which is not to say that it has ever been different for Robert Forster. It is just that this time he is a little bit closer to home.
Rating: ★★★★
