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JOSEPH ARTHUR - REDEMPTION’S SON
Even as you read this Joseph Arthur is
making another record. Two years ago, his
Come to Where I’m From lured journalists out
on the limb of hyperbole. The album was
named the #1 record of the year by
Entertainment Weekly and prompted
Alternative Press to call Arthur “one of the
last true artists left in the world.”
Since then, Joseph and his ever-generous
muse have kept near-daily appointments. The
result, for the moment at least, is
Redemption’s Son. Consistently inspired,
occasionally frazzled, and often startlingly
beautiful, it’s the kind of record you can
build a slow sustainable love affair with.
London’s Sunday Times raves, “Redemption’s
Son exhibits the sure sign of a classic
album...brilliant.”
The album was recorded in various locations
over the last two years and was mixed by
Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Cibo
Matto, Pearl Jam, Paul McCartney). Joseph
plays most of the instruments himself, but a
gold star is also due to Pat Sansone, who
contributed bass, piano and mellotron parts.
Joseph Arthur was born in Akron, Ohio,
became a songwriting obsessive in Atlanta,
Georgia, and later moved to New York, where
he still lives. Circa 1996 he was still a
guitar salesman working at Clark’s Music in
Atlanta. Soon, however, Joseph would become
the first rock artist to sign to Peter
Gabriel’s Real World label. The first album,
Big City Secrets (1996) was followed by the
seven-song EP Vacancy (1999) and then Come
To Where I’m From. In addition to being
voted ‘Number One Album of the Year 2000’ in
Entertainment Weekly and Newsday, the album
made many ‘Top 10 Albums of the Year’ lists,
including The New York Times and CMJ.
Joseph understands that a truly great song
is a deft marriage of music and words, not a
slew of cat/bat rhymes nailed to a tune.
Joseph hones his lyrics, and it shows. Take,
for example, the song “Favorite Girl,” in
which he sings “I’ve been so happy being
unhappy with you.” Or consider these lines
from the Redemption’s Son title track:
“Driving in my daddy’s car/ Ashtray full of
his cigars/ Is it real what I see/ His ghost
riding next to me/ Till he’s gone I won’t be
free.”
One of the most direct songs on the new
album is “You Are the Dark.” “The lyrics
about tidying up the place and lying down in
the clean emptiness are just directly out of
my life,” says Joseph. “The song’s about
that person you used to look at to make you
feel good, and how when you look at them now
they make you feel horrible.”
The record closes with “You’ve Been Loved,”
a near lullaby, which presents an
almost-transcendent front even as it’s
underpinned by scolding. “It was written for
various friends and for myself, in reaction
to self-pity,” Arthur says. “It’s like, you
have been loved, so what more do you want?”
Like Big City Secrets, Vacancy and Come To
Where I’m From, Redemption’s Son once again
features sleeve-art by Joseph. Vacancy’s
sleeve design—a collaborative effort by
Joseph and his friend Zachary Larner—earned
a Grammy nomination for Best Recording
Package.
In 2000, journalist Stephen Cox quizzed
Joseph about his painting, discovering that
his favorite artists include William De
Kooning, Franz Kline and Basquiat. “Are you
exercising demons (in your own painting)?”
asked Cox. “Probably to some degree,”
replied Joseph. “If you’re not dulling
yourself or anaesthetizing yourself you have
a lot of raw energy, and if you’re young and
your demons are still flabby, then there is
a lot of working out to do.”
Naturally, there is interplay between
Arthur’s works in different media. “It all
comes from the same thing,” he says. “I deal
a lot with communication within the self,
with opposite sides of the self talking to
each other, the duality of life. I’m
interested in people’s vulnerability – in
saying things that don’t get said all the
time. Things that aren’t safe.”
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