There has long been a critical buzz around Joseph Arthur. Discovered by Peter Gabriel, this year he broke into the mainstream thanks to his song In The Sun getting picked for a high profile ad campaign, supporting REM on the European leg of their world tour and receiving five star reviews for the album Our Shadows Will Remain.
Record company 14th Floor is heavily promoting the single judging from the 13 page booklet of reviews that came with the CD. And it is easy to see why it has chosen Even Tho as the new single. It is a catchy, melodic, soup of wistfulness that should play nicely on the likes of Magic FM and Radio 2 thus plugging the album and taking Arthur to more mainstream listeners.
It's a pity. The single isn't representative of his work in general, lacking the bleak melancholy of his best. But who am I to complain? It is bound to go down well with the crowd who buy Jonathan Rice and James Blunt, especially broken hearted girls who fight back the tears while listening to mope pop on their iPod Shuffle as they wait for buses in the rain.
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