Calling From a Country Phone is sometimes referred to as Robert Forster's
"country" album, but the folk-rock sound (with occasional pedal
steel) recalls Felt's Me and a Monkey on the Moon more than anything that
has ever come out of Nashville. Forster's no-frills production suits his
idiosyncratic and dramatic style, which requires very little in terms
of accompaniment for its effect. "Atlanta Lie Low" seems too
low-key to open an album, but it is immediately followed by "121,"
an unusually straight rocker on which Forster's delivery actually suggests
Elvis Presley at times. "Drop" was the album's single, a dynamic
song that deserved to be heard but would have found no place on the charts
of the day, and "Falling Star" is just as good. Calling From
a Country Phone is the only one of Forster's solo albums that was never
released in the U.S., which is both disappointing and understandable since
it probably would not have gained an audience beyond the adulatory cult
surrounding the Go-Betweens.
(by Greg Adams, All
Music Guide)
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