REVIEW : The Graduation Ceremony - Filter Magazine

FILTER Grade: 71%

By Marissa R. Moss on May 24, 2011

I first came across Joseph Arthur around the time of his 2004 album Our Shadows Will Remain, his songs providing solace during a period that Sal Paradise might describe as “the miserably weary split-up and my feeling that everything was dead.” And that’s a lot of what Arthur is: confessional, weary and able to garner both critical praise and sarcastic disdain in one breath. 

On The Graduation Ceremony, Arthur is still singing about miserably weary split-ups with lines like “You left me homeless in my home” (on “Horses”) and “I loved you as much as the night is long” (from “Over the Sun”). But there’s no revelation in words or progress, though “Gypsy Faded” and “Out on a Limb” are impressively constructed. Arthur’s been compared to Dylan, but while Dylan was able to wince through pain, you get the impression Arthur’s response might be less subtle. Nuance is an art, just not Arthur.

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