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Redemption's Son

Joseph Arthur

Even as you read this Joseph Arthur is making another record. Or sculpting or painting or tapping rows of Beat prose onto a PowerBook screen. It might have been two years since his Come To Where I'm From album had reviewers alluding to Kurt Cobain and the great New York songwriters, but Joseph and his ever-generous muse have kept near-daily appointments.

The result, for the moment at least, is Redemption's Son. Consistently inspired, occasionally frazzled, and often startlingly beautiful, it's the kind of record you can build a slow, sustainable love affair with, its rich textures, vulnerability and acute, poetic lyrics guaranteed to slacken jaws and raise goose bumps. Reassuringly, it was made by a man with a self-effacing sense of humour and a complete lack of pretension.

Redemption's Son at realworldrecords.com