Archive Review: Joseph Arthur's Come To Where I’m From (2000)

Joseph Arthur is the latest in a long line of acoustic-based folk-rock troubadours that probably began with Tim Buckley and will carry on in an eternal, unending cycle of songs appealing to teenage girls needing a sensitive male artist to swoon over. Not that I have anything against such artists – they’re certainly preferable to the pre-fab and coldly-calculated pop dreck of boy bands like N’Sync. Truth be told, there was something morbidly satisfying about Buckley’s suicidal death-wish poetry and anti-celebrity introversion that even brought down as stalwart a rocker as Kurt Cobain (not to mention probably cursed his son Jeff at birth).

With the exception of a couple of songs, however, Arthur only displays two speeds on Come To Where I’m From – morose and moroser. Those exceptions can be pretty crunchy, like the Nirvana-styled “Exhausted” or the rambling “Creation of A Stain.” More often than not, however, Arthur merely provides us with a teasing false start, as with the wickedly distorted guitar that opens “History” or the discordant percussion that frames “Eyes On My Back.” Mostly Arthur merely drones on above a lush musical soundtrack produced with his usual deft hand by T-Bone Burnett. If you’re into the sensitive, troubled troubadour kind of thing, you’ll find that Arthur does it as well as anybody on Come To Where I’m From.

Personally, I’ll take my pain straight, no chaser, with blues artists like Robert Johnson or Son House, or just bludgeon myself into an uncaring, blissful state with a glorious din from the likes of Motörhead. Either way, I’ll wake up in the morning with only a fraction of the self-loathing and lack of respect felt by Arthur and his ilk. Extra bonus: the cover art and inside graphics for Come To Where I’m From are from paintings by Arthur, a sure sign of multi-artistic compulsion. (Real World/Virgin Records)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™ zine, 2000

New Music Monthly: October 2019 releases

Lotsa great music this month, with new tunes from friends old and new like Wilco, the Wildhearts, Joseph Arthur, the Muffs, Swans, and others. Not enough? How 'bout a new album from prog-rock supergroup Flying Colors (with Steve Morse, Neil Morse, and Mike Portnoy)? The first new LP in decades from glam-rockers Angel? A new set from Mississippi bluesman Jimmy "Duck" Holmes (produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys)? Maybe archive releases and reissues from Frank Zappa, Jethro Tull, Neil Young, and Big Star will scratch that itch. No? There's just no pleasing you people...

Release dates are subject to change and nobody tells me when they do. If you’re interesting in buying an album, just hit the ‘Buy!’ link to get it from Amazon.com...it’s just that damn easy! Your purchase puts valuable ‘store credit’ in the Reverend’s pocket that he’ll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock ‘n’ roll ecstasy!

OCTOBER 4
Angel - Risen   BUY!
Flying Colors - Third Degree [prog supergroup w/Steve Morse, Neal Morse & Mike Portnoy]   BUY!
North Mississippi Allstars - Up and Rolling   BUY!
that dog. - Old LP   BUY!
Wilco - Ode To Joy   BUY!
The Wildhearts - Diagnosis EP   BUY!

OCTOBER 11
808 State - Transmission Suite   BUY!
Joseph Arthur - Come Back World   BUY!
Babymetal - Metal Galaxy   BUY!
Kim Gordon - No Home Record   BUY!
Lacuna Coil - Black Anima   BUY!
Vinnie Moore - Soul Shifter   BUY!

OCTOBER 18
Alter Bridge - Walk the Sky   BUY!
Fastball - The Help Machine   BUY!
Rob Halford - Celestial   BUY!
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - Cypress Grove [produced by Dan Auerbach]   BUY!
Jim James - The Order of Nature   BUY!
Jethro Tull - Stormwatch [40th anniversary box]   BUY!
Mark Lanegan Band - Somebody's Knocking   BUY!
Refused - War Music   BUY!

OCTOBER 25
Jan Akkerman - Close Beauty   BUY!
Big Star - In Space [CD & vinyl reissue]   BUY!
Longwave - If We Ever Live Forever   BUY!
The Muffs - No Holiday   BUY!
Grace Potter - Daylight   BUY!
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts   BUY!
Swans - Leaving Meaning   BUY!
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Colorado   BUY!
Frank Zappa - Halloween 73   BUY!

Album of the Month: Big Star's In Space, a reissue of the band's 2005 "reunion" album on both CD and vinyl. Big Star founder Alex Chilton had put together a new version of the band a decade previous, built around original drummer Jody Stephens and the talented duo of Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow from the Posies. In Space was the only studio LP released by this line-up and would prove to be Chilton's last album released before his death in 2010. Although it's often criticized as no better than a Chilton solo album, one has to ask "what's wrong with that?"