Joseph Arthur

Editor's Review:

The first sounds out of the speakers are an acoustic guitar and then a breathy, soft voice singing with a resigned melancholy about unrequited desires and a search for things to believe in. Then a rich pop arrangement featuring cello, synthesized woodwinds and female backing vocal takes flight and sends the song soaring majestically in the air. This is the way the record goes, song after song.

By combining the earthy, organic timbres of voice, acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica with lo-fi electric guitars, synthetic beats and other forms of electronica, Joseph Arthur has created a sound which is modern yet classic. His songs invoke moods that range from dreamy lethargy to urgent angst and passion. With the pretty melodies and gentle vocals riding over lush swirling arrangements, this music is reminiscent of emotionally fragile British folk singers of the post-psychedelic era — Tim Buckley, Nick Drake or Donovan — yet the blending in of edgy, post-modern sounds keeps the record contemporary.

The words of these songs don’t tell stories in any more than a read-between-the-lines kind of way, but they nonetheless pull the listener deep into the psychic worlds of the characters by means of the scattered images they toss out.

Listening to the songs of Joseph Arthur feels like walking through a half-remembered dream, sometimes like traversing the aural equivalent of an alien landscape, other times like sitting by a lazy river in the English countryside with the sun shining, flowers blooming and insects buzzing. A musician like him, one who wields the emotional power of sound with such expertise, is a rare find, one to be treasured.

- The Shug

Bookmark:

Record Label Real World Released April 2000

Tracks In the Sun Ashes Everywhere Chemical History Invisible Hands Cockroach Exhausted Eyes on My Back Tattoo The Real You Creation or a Stain Speed of Light