REVIEW : Come To Where I'm From - Ink 19

by Bryan Tilford, 2000-08-15

If you’ve heard other Real World releases or just plain thought they were a little too “out there” for you, take note; Joseph Arthur is from an unusual country for them – the USA. These songs are firmly rooted in positive, upbeat pop, smoothly bopping and frolicking about – though some are more serious, more embracingly lamentous. Throughout are some noticeably hopeful and creative applications of that traditional song form.

The music is largely coated with a fuzzy, rich pastoral backdrop, simple but effective with a slick diversity and exploratory nature. Each track sticks its finger into a different flavor of the pop pie, as well as sprinkling a few serendipitous surprises here and there. And then there’s “Cockroach,” featuring some aurally distinct ultra-eclectic sonic relationships. 

“Ashes Everywhere” interjects a harmonica solo plodding along like a waking Neil Young. Other times Joseph grabs a shortcut into Peter Gabriel or Robbie Robertson territory, add a pinch of raw and grit.

“Eyes On My Back” comes in like a lost early solo Lennon demo but evolves into quite a splashy event. In a somber and introspective “The Real You,” Joseph reveals “I have to redeem myself forever and forever, you can hear it in my song.”

Joseph Arthur has definitely accepted music into his soul. Come to Where I’m From is his testimony of that penetration.