REVIEW : Arthur Buck 2 - AllMusic.com

Review by Mark Deming

Seven years after cult-favorite singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur and former R.E.M. guitarist and frequent indie rock pinch hitter Peter Buck spontaneously wrote a batch of songs and committed them to tape for their collaborative project Arthur Buck, the pair have teamed up for a second LP, imaginatively titled Arthur Buck 2. 

The debut seemed like a one-off, given that the songs were written in less than a week and the basic tracks were recorded in a day, but apparently they decided that the collaboration had some more gas in the tank, and Arthur Buck 2 shows they weren't wrong. This time around, Arthur and Buck took a different approach to recording -- they used a producer, Jacknife Lee (who produced R.E.M.'s final studio albums), and recorded with a handful of backing musicians, including frequent Buck collaborators Scott McCaughey (bass) and Linda Pitmon (drums), as well as former Delta 72 frontman Gregg Foreman on keyboards.

The music has a more unified feel than the first Arthur Buck album, which is not to say it sounds fussed over. Bits of guitar strumming and banter between the players can be heard deep in the mix between tracks, and while this sounds like the work of a band, it's a band who sound just a bit loose, working in the moment and seemingly happy to do so. Lee's production pours a layer of inspired murk over the performances, sometimes filtering Arthur's voice so he sounds like he's singing through an old AM radio and letting microphone bleed beef up the audio. 

As on the first record, this sounds more like a Joseph Arthur album than a fifty-fifty collaboration between the headliners, but it also feels bolder and Arthur seems to take more chances as a songwriter and frontman, while Buck's guitar work has gained muscle and a greater sense of fun compared to his first LP with Arthur, adding plenty of his trademark jangle along with some fuzzy, garage-informed riffs. If Arthur Buck felt like an inspired bit of off-the cuff music-making, Arthur Buck 2 sounds like they decided to make a smart, raucous rock & roll record, and that's just what they've delivered.