CD Review

After releasing his first three albums on Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, troubadour-edgy rocker Joseph Arthur confidently offers us Our Shadows Will Remain, an artistic bonanza of both music and paintings. Yes, paintings. The CD booklet is art in itself, full of Arthur’s own artwork, featuring a number of abstract doodling that would make great coffee table or t-shirt material. Like many before him, who went from folk troubadour to rock sensation, Arthur is on a similar path to bigger stages and audiences with this extremely diverse palette, that will bridge him to wider acclaim.

All paintings aside, the first single “Can’t Exist” sounds like a Ryan Adams Rock N Roll reflection, complete with stormy guitars and stark confessional pangs atop a gospel aura. “Stumble and Pain” and “Wasted” move over a trip-hop industrial beat, the later visiting New Order new wave hooks. The album is filled with gems that continually challenge the meaning of a rock album with its diversity and mood swings that would find comfort with a Jeff Buckely or Elliott Smith fan. The symphonic “Even Tho” is a radio formula that the guy from Dashboard Confessional should try listening to in order to get sensitive without sounding nauseating emo.

Our Shadows Will Remain is Arthur’s most accomplished work to date, filled with hidden hooks and infectious musicianship that becomes more rewarding upon subsequent spins. This effort drips with such creativity that even Joseph’s paintings look better upon further study.