| Author | Message | ||
     Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 22 Registered: 05-2005 |
Hi, I just purchased Warm Nights. I've given it a few spins. It's too fresh for me to give an opinion. What do others think of this record? The only other solo record I own by Robert is Danger in the Past which is exquisite if not too short. I wish it was at least a proper 10 song release. Somehow I have all of Grant's plus the first Jack Frost. I think they were just easier to purchase (in stock at stores when released.) The production is very interesting on Warm Nights. It seems like a real rocker. Perhaps Edwyn's influence. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 109 Registered: 10-2004 |
Warm Nights is not my favorite Forster solo album (that would be 'Calling from a Country Phone), but it's got a few songs that I like quite a bit, like 'I can do,' and the title track. I was never big on the garage-style production, personally. I felt like the songs from that album came off better live (I saw him on the tour he did in support of the album). In some ways the songs with their kind of rocking simplicity seem like they were designed to be played live. But my qualms with the production and inconsistent song quality aside, to me the record has a very immediate, intimate feel which I find endearing. | ||
| Donat Member Username: Donat Post Number: 76 Registered: 11-2004 |
Having seen Warm Nights (the band) play and enjoying Forster's rediscovery of electricity, I was keen to hear these songs in a studio form. The thing that totally threw me off was the fact that Forster didn't record the album in Brisbane with Adele and Glenn. To me, it seemed stupid to take these songs to London when they were/are so Brisbane. "Snake Skin Lady" and "On A Street Corner" are very Brisbane - as is the title track to the record. So for the last 9 years, I avoided buying this album - until about three months ago. Having not seen the Warm Nights record on the shelf in Brisbane shops probably didn't accelerate any enthusiasm towards purchasing it. Ebay is always a last resort for me! I think the version of "Rock 'n' Roll Friend" is terrible - the old B-side sounded better in its original form and that farting tuba in "Fortress" is grating. "On A Street Corner," Robert's "Idiot Wind" is a very uncomfortable song to listen to - perhaps because it's about Lindy. I quite like it, but it's got nothing on Danger In The Past. What I love about Forster's solo records is the rawness of them - which matches his sonic aesthetics perfectly. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 65 Registered: 04-2005 |
Matthias, I also recently bought "Warm Nights" and have only heard one other solo RF, "Danger in the Past." (Still need to track down "Country Phone"; not so enthused about the covers album.) Based on that limited comparison, I'd agree that "Warm Nights" is not a match for the first solo album, but it's still pretty good. Like Donat, I think "Rock 'n' Roll Friend" on "Warm Nights" is just plain bad--what was the point? "Fortress" is pretty weak too, because I never much cared for that music-hall style of arrangement (a la Lou Reed's "Goodnight Ladies" and many early '70s Kinks songs). It seems like "Warm Nights" could have rocked more--you can hear hints of that swampy, CCR-influenced sound that the group Warm Nights was said to have live, but the recording is too restrained. I found myself thinking "early Dire Straits," and I don't particularly mean that as a compliment. So--pretty decent album, could have been a lot better. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 39 Registered: 05-2005 |
What I like best about Warm Nights is the cover, which is very beautiful. It would look particularly great as a vinyl sleeve, though I don't know if it was released on record. The first time I interviewed Robert was on that tour and he told me the picture was taken in Queensland, but I can't remember where. He does swear, by the way. Well, face to face he did. The second time I interviewed him was over the phone and he didn't. I like some of the songs on it, but the version of Rock 'n' Roll Friend was just pointless. Jeff is right in saying that the songs worked better live. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 110 Registered: 10-2004 |
Padraig, Warm Nights did come out on vinyl, which is the format I have. And yeah, the sleeve is beautiful, particularly in LP form. I always assumed it was a photo of somewhere in the US, though, as it looks so, well, American. I've never been to Australia, though, but it would make WAY more sense for the photos to have been taken there, obviously. Anyway, I agree with the above statements about the Warm Nights version of Rock n Roll Friend being atrocious. | ||
| M. Mark Burgess Member Username: Fortysomething Post Number: 24 Registered: 05-2005 |
This may be stating the obvious but I think Robert and Grant's solo work shows the differences in their aesthetic attitude far more than their work together. I'm not saying that one is better than the other,just different. There are some days when I prefer Robert's stripped-down,laid-back approach and other days when I have to hear Grant's more polished,"commercial" stuff. Warm Nights is Robert doing what he does best. I think there's alot of humor in this recording,lyrically and musically and like Horsebreaker,is a great cd for road trips. I also think that the Go-B's should do a covers album of the best of the solo material,like they already do some of it live. Could be quite interesting. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 40 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jeff, I assumed the cover picture was taken in America too. It does look very American. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 67 Registered: 03-2005 |
I probably should give "Warm Nights" another listen. I remember liking "Loneliness," "Snake Skin Lady," "On a Street Corner" and "Crying Love." I can't really get into "Fortress,""Jug of Wine" or "I Can Do." Because the original version of "Rock n Roll Friend" is one of my absolute top five favorite Go Betweens songs I can't handle the offhand version thrown out on "Warm Nights" at all. "I'll Jump" seemed pleasant but ho-hum. Is "On a Street Corner" really about Lindy? That's a depressing thought. It must be the most brutal song I've ever heard from Robert and has always seemed out of character. I share Jeff's attachment to "Calling from a Country Phone," a seriously underappreciated album. I wish some big Nashville name had covered "Atlanta Lie Low" and set Robert up financially. "Cat's Life" is a great rumination on the way some people limit their own lives. "The Circle" is a hilarious take on (I assume) the incestuous Brisbane boho scene of his youth. I have similar memories from a different context. And, talking about Creedence, "121" starts out with the "Green River" intro and careens into one of Robert's best-ever straight-out rock n roll tunes. It was even better when the GoBees did it when I saw them two years ago. The only time the album bogs down a bit for me is when Robert starts to extol his new-found joys of marriage. I certainly do not want to begrudge him that but the lyrics on the musically excellent "Beyond Their Law" do not really live up to the tension in the music. I don't think "Warm Nights" comes anywhere near the quality level of "Country Phone." "Danger in the Past" is an obviously great record even if the Mick Harvey sound gets a bit heavy-handed at times, but everybody talks it up all the time. I avoided the covers LP for a long time but finally picked it up and am glad I did. That's how I learned about Grant Hart's two great records, so it justified its existence for me. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 12 Registered: 08-2005 |
I can confirm that the cover photos for the Warm Nights album were taken in America (so far as I recall, they were taken in Texas), by the German artist Leni Hoffmann. Most of the CD booklet shots were likewise taken by Hoffmann in America, while the booklet shots of RF were taken by another German artist, Manuel Franke. Hoffmann also designed the Warm Nights tour T-shirt. Leni Hoffmann's association with RF goes back to 1993 when she did a residency in conjunction with the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, while in April 1994 she invited RF and Jeffrey Wegener to play together at the opening of her exhibition in Brisbane. RF subsequently confirmed in interview (Axe Magazine, Sydney, 1999), that it was this moment — he and Wegener played an extended version of 'Heroin' by the Velvet Underground, minus vocals, on this occasion — which precipitated an extraordinary burst of creativity (after a period in the wilderness, following the recording of the Calling From A Country Phone album and the covers album), which ultimately culminates in the bulk of the material recorded for the Warm Nights album. The degree to which all this played a role in RF's decision to invite Hoffmann to create the cover art for the album I can't recall now, but I'm sure it was a factor. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 41 Registered: 05-2005 |
Then I got it wrong. Sorry everyone. I misremembered my conversation with Robert. I must check the tape sometime. Maybe I assumed it was Queensland and he told me it was America. I still love the cover. | ||
| Donat Member Username: Donat Post Number: 78 Registered: 11-2004 |
The cover is breathtaking - wish I had the LP! | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 13 Registered: 08-2005 |
Yes, Leni Hoffmann's graphic design work is quite special. In 1995 the Musee d'art Modern de la Ville de Paris hosted a retrospective of her printed work. Nevertheless, it was a very courageous decision by RF to commission an artist and to give her total artistic freedom in this regard. As a rule, record companies don't encourage 'contracting out' like this. Readers of this message board would know that RF has often assumed a hands-on and pro-active role in the design and packaging of his records. From a purely mercantile perspective, this interest in working with independent artists on the development of cover concepts (rather than in-house designers), sometimes appears not to serve his best interests. It is something that goes right back to the Go-Betweens' earliest days (eg. Jenny Watson's cover for Send Me A Lullaby), and for this, I think, he deserves more credit. | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 13 Registered: 05-2005 |
I agree with most of the comments here. I do love quite a few songs on the record (Loneliness, Snake Skin Lady, I can do, I'll Jump, On a street corner and the title track), but I don't really like the rest at all. So, certainly an album of two halves. The good stuff is really great, though. I find the title track has a kind of off-hand intensity that for me sums up its subject matter. I love the drumming on it. And "Loneliness" is a lovely little song, maybe better for not having the emotional outpourings of "On a street corner". But the other tracks don't do anything for me. I could cope with never hearing them again. Does anyone find much of worth in "Jug of Wine", "Fortress" or the remade "RnR Friend"? | ||
| jerry_h Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 10 Registered: 07-2005 |
I quite like "RnR Friend" I agree not as great as the original, but I do like the hammond organ in it. Jug of Wine is not good I suspect quite good to play nad sing but not to listen to. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 14 Registered: 08-2005 |
Crying Love should have been a big, big hit. The back-up vocal harmonies by Glenn and Adele lent the song a certain force that unfortunately Edwin Collins could not bring to it in the studio (despite his blazing guitar solo). Lonliness was another great song live, and has apparently been given an occasional run at recent soundchecks, so who knows, maybe it will make a comeback. As for the version of Rock 'n' Roll Friend, like many of the other tracks on Warm Nights, it was augmented in the studio in ways that could hardly have been anticipated. That the instrumentation and sound recalls Dylan's Street Legal, was itself an interesting gesture, which perhaps can be understood in relation to the lyric in Crying Love "... it's the lawman in me that loves honesty and truth." | ||
| jerry_h Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 11 Registered: 07-2005 |
I quite like "RnR Friend" I agree not as great as the original, but I do like the hammond organ in it. Jug of Wine is not good I suspect quite good to play nad sing but not to listen to. |