Well, my first choice for review of a 2012 album went less than swimmingly. Let's hope it's second time lucky for the new year. Joseph Arthur has built himself a strong and dedicated following over fifteen years gigging and a virtual plethora of albums, EPs, Promos, soundtracks and other works too numerous to mention. Talk about prolific! In only a decade and a half he's released nine full albums, of which this is the most recent.
Redemption City --- Joseph Arthur --- 2012 (Self-released)
Discovered by Peter Gabriel in 1997, Arthur signed to the man's RealWorld label, the first ever American artist to do so, but later broke away to work with other, independent labels, finally forming his own, on which he released his last three albums. This one, however, he has released for consumption directly via the internet as soon as he had completed it, so technically it's not on any label, though perhaps it may surface on his own label, Lonely Astronaut, in some form.
Arthur has made his reputation through intensely personal songs and his habit of making all his live shows instantly available after the gig, like those bad bootleg tapes we used to buy (what? Bootleg? What? Tapes? Ah, yer too young, kid!), with the major difference that Arthur's “bootlegs” are first of all legit, as it's his music and he's selling them, and also they are of course of far higher quality than the hissy, squeaky C90s with annoying crowd chatter we used to buy. Look, it was a different time, okay?
This is a double CD, so there's a lot to get through. Disc one opens with “Travel as equals”, which starts almost as a poem with just percussion and a little piano before it kicks up and becomes a mid-paced rock/folk song, Arthur's singing a little odd, almost like a stream of words just one after the other, in some ways like a folk musician attempting a rap. Well, not really, but you'd have to hear it to understand. It's only the verses though, as on the chorus he sings normally. Perhaps there's a hint of early Dylan in there, though I'm not a fan personally. Little touch of David Byrne, maybe.
It's a good opener and certainly doesn't disappoint, and it's followed by “Wasted days”, even more like a rap by a folkster. I could almost compare it to Nick Cave at his more restrained drawling his rap over the music, or maybe Matt Johnson in his less angry moments. The song is another mid-pacer, with a nice keyboard line and some sort of popping percussion. It's hard to know what the instruments are, as they're not credited, but there's a very good, and original reason for that: Joseph Arthur plays every single instrument on this album. He also writes every song and produced and arranged it: small wonder then that it took almost three years to create.
There's something very attractive about Joseph Arthur's music, hard to put your finger on. It's almost like you get a front-row seat at one of his shows, or get inside his head or his heart. It's that personal and intimate. “Mother of exiles” is a little funkier, with talkbox guitar and smooth bass, and does indeed evoke the best of The The in its atmosphere, dark and brooding and just a little dangerous. “Yer only job” is more uptempo and happy, and as you listen to the record you realise that, as Arthur says on his own website, this is not just a recording: it's a city. It's a city with streets and laybys and avenues and cars with cats in them and a night sky and shops and garages, and many, many dark and unexplored places, and it takes a while to walk the city and see all it has to offer.
So this review will be a little longer than usual, not only because the album is a double, but because I would like to do this work justice, and not skip over anything if I can. The guy was good enough to allow people download it for free from his website, so the least I can do is give it a proper review. “I miss the zoo” is a lovely, guitar led ballad with a definite r&b feel, and I can hear so many people in this album --- Mark Knopfler, Matt Johnson, Bruce Springsteen, Paddy McAloon and more. So many styles and yet the one style, so many voices and yet all singing the same song to the same tune. In some ways, Joseph Arthur is showing how a certain type of rap can work with music if it's approached properly. It doesn't all have to be angry and forceful, guys. I'm sure there are some rappers who would really appreciate how Arthur uses what they probably see as their medium in a whole new way.
Some pretty weird, discordant effects accompany “There with me”, though the song is again slow and relaxed, and I'm put in mind of telephones dialling, as on ELO's “Telephone line”, with some spacey synth sounds. This is a short track, but just as I'm thinking it's going to be an instrumental the voice cuts in, but the lyric is kind of sparse and really more an extra instrument than anything else. It goes into “No surrender comes for free”, with a big powerful drum sound and smooth slide guitar, kicking up the tempo in an almost country style, Arthur's vocal double-tracked and time-delayed so that it sounds like he's harmonising with himself. Clever touch.
“Night clothes” opens as a Gabrielesque, jungle-type rhythm with deep, funky bass and synth, swaggering keys in the background, and a sweet little guitar solo near the end, which takes us into the title track, a real folk-style handclapper with a really lovely line in synth and some very effective percussion. An interesting lyric where every line of the verses seems to begin with the words “Redemption City”, but the chorus has no mention of the city, just finding redemption. Nice twist. Some great mandolin really adds an extra layer to the melody as the song begins to wind down. “Barriers” is almost a piece of freeform instrumental electronica, then “You're not the only one” is a heavy, dramatic melody led by a madly screeching guitar, forming a backdrop to a laconic vocal from Arthur, which in part recalls the solo work of the Cars' Ric Ocasek.
The first disc ends on “So far from free”, a laidback, breezy, almost ethereal melody that carries another double vocal. I have to say one of the voices sounds female, though if Arthur really does play every instrument and sing every voice, maybe it's technical trickery that allows his voice to go up several octaves, or maybe it's just an uncredited female singer, though it seems, from what I've learned of Joseph Arthur, he gives credit where it's due, so it's unlikely he would have a backing singer and not mention her. Anyway, it's a nice slow, understated ending to the first part of the album, and I'm impressed so far, that's for sure.
And as disc two opens, we're faced with by far the longest track on the album. Arthur has stated on his website that the two parts of the album can be listened to separately, that those who, for one reason or another, dislike double albums can listen to the first part and not miss anything. He has said that the songs on the first part, the first disc, are
”the deep cuts, which would have otherwise remained on the cutting room floor or else been leaked out over time in various ways, fragmented beings with no brothers or sisters or home. I think both parts serve to strengthen the whole. They are relating to each other and breathing back and forth. They are each other’s shadow and hold hands when no one is watching.” (Verbatim from
Joseph Arthur | Redemption City, new album available for FULL FREE DOWNLOAD [HQ])
If that's true, then anyone who decided not to download the second disc is right away poorer for the experience, as the opener, “Surrender to the storm” is a beautiful, lazy and yet powerful ballad with some exceptional guitar, atmospheric keys and runs for over eleven minutes! If nothing else, this track is a showcase for just how multi-talented Joseph Arthur is, able to play all those disparate instruments, and excel at each one, in addition to his other many talents like singing and songwriting, and producing. Talk about an all-round man! If Arthur were charging for the album --- he's not: you can make a donation, but the album can be downloaded for nothing --- then “Surrender to the storm” would be worth the price by itself.
Most of the track seems to be an incredibly intense instrumental, with scattered singing here and there, just where he believes it's needed, and it works beautifully. My only fear is that, with a song as amazing as this to start off the second disc, can this top quality be maintained, or has Arthur poured all his heart and soul into this one track, leaving if not filler, then surely lower standard material to take up the rest of the disc? Well, “Fractures” starts off as another spoken word/rap deal, but then takes off on the back of some very new-wave synthery, punchy percussion and some nice backing vox, lending the thing a kind of semi-gospel air, while deep organ and drum machines take “Free freedom” in, and now I realise who that semi-rap/semi-sung vocal reminds me of: it's the Pet Shop Boys, though with a lot more emotion than Neil Tennant ever showed on their music.
“Touched” is another mid-paced track with a mostly spoken vocal, some jazzy guitar, sort of cushioned percussion and a great little sax break, then “Follow” is much more laidback, an ambient little piece with strange almost falsetto vocal from Joseph, the song itself fading it seems rather suddenly, then we're into a discordant “Kandinsky”, very off-key, very weird and a strange little song that I really don't get, nor like particularly. Still, that's eighteen tracks into an album of twenty-four, and this is the first one I haven't enjoyed. Not a bad ratio, really. It's followed by the atmospheric “Humanity fade”, where Arthur warns of the dangers of being too reliant on the internet and computers:
”We are connected to the mainframe/ With our souls plugged in/ Our spirits are now digital/ We wear electical skin.” There's a brooding sense of danger and rising panic about the song, which basically keeps the same melody all the way through, but the intensity seems to somehow build anyway.
“Sleepless” has a nice little dancy bassline and some whistling keyboards, what sounds I think like some more talkbox guitar, and no real vocal to speak of, then the track with the longest title on the album, “It takes a lot of time to live in the moment”, is another dancy number with a spoken vocal, but a shorter track. Piano leads “Visit us”, a nice easy ballad with a delightfully lazy drumline and some delicate synthwork, again little in the way of vocals, similar to “Sleepless”, while “I am the Mississippi" has a lovely gentle guitar opening against a backdrop of sumptuous synth, a spoken vocal which allows you to effortlessly float down the mighty river in question, watching the scenery as you drift by, then the album ends as it began --- as the whole, two-disc experience began --- with “Travel as equals (reprise)”, a slowed down, gentle and almost acoustic version of the opener which brings everything full circle.
This is the first time I have heard of Joseph Arthur, never mind heard his music, and I am seriously impressed. This would not be the sort of thing I would normally seek out, but once I heard “Travel as equals” I knew it was quite likely that I would enjoy this album. However, I did not for a moment envisage how deeply it would affect me. Having heard “Redemption city”, I'm now eager to hear more of this man's work. How amazing that you can have an experience like this, and not even be asked to pay for it, which I would have, and will if asked.
Truly an artist for the age, it would be rather hard to travel as Joseph Arthur's equal, as I believe he has few if any who come anywhere close to his talent. You really have to hear this album, and hey, it won't even cost you a cent! What have you to lose?
TRACKLISTING
DISC 1
1. Travel as equals
2. Wasted days
3. Mother of exiles
4. Yer only job
5. I miss the zoo
6. There with me
7. No surrender comes for free
8. Night clothes
9. Redemption City
10. Barriers
11. You're not the only one
12. So far from free
DISC 2
1. Surrender to the storm
2. Fractures
3. Free freedom
4. Touched
5. Follow
6. Kadinsky
7. Humanity fade
8. Sleepless
9. It takes a lot of time to live in the moment
10. Visit us
11. I am the Mississippi
12. Travel as equals (reprise)