REVIEW : Our Shadows Will Remain - The Guardian

by David Peschek
Fri 8 Jul 2005 

Joseph Arthur's career has been blighted by an attack of that nebulous thing known as critical acclaim - a back-handed way of saying the records are good but no one's buying them. On a new label, his fourth album sees him opening up; it deserves more concrete rewards.

Arthur shrugs off the restrictive definitions of what a singer-songwriter should do: he draws on grunge but doesn't really make rock music; there are even echoes of David Bowie and Peter Gabriel, his early mentor. Puppets has a thunderous rolling beat and ethereal choral harmonies; Can't Exist initially seems a self-conscious stab at a radio-friendly single, until its simple, chiming chords rupture in a tenebrous squall. Echo Park and the spooked ripples of In Ohio and A Smile That Explodes are folkish and fragile.

If at first the songs feel ordinary, perseverance reveals the haunting quality of Arthur's imagery, and the rich patina of his careworn voice.

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