(Real World)
On his third album, Redemption's Son, Joseph Arthur channels several generations of popular singer-songwriters, from the religious pathos of Leonard Cohen to the maddening inconsistency of Ryan Adams.
The result is an album that shows much promise but too frequently slips back into overt clich??, lessening the effect of the high points.
Throughout the album, Arthur puts forth a metaphor relating the conjunction of love and faith, of commitment and trust and of relationships between lovers and God.
He draws a parallel between the redemptive powers of religion and relationships. Arthur desires a relationship that will lend his own life meaning, and tries to discern whether a woman or a faith can achieve this goal. As alluded to in the album title, he is searching for redemption, singing songs about a devotion that brings salvation to the devotee. Who the devotion is meant for isn't important: the effect is what matters.
Through deft songwriting ability, this elaborate metaphor almost never becomes heavy-handed, and can be as shallow or as deep as the listener prefers. Lines like \Will salvation only come if I fall?"" from ""Favorite Girl"" can be read several ways. It's unclear whether Arthur is talking about figuratively falling, or falling in love, and this haziness is exactly his point. There are no easy answers to the questions he poses.
Despite the potential of this involved and interesting subject matter, though, Redemption's Son lags early and often. With an unforgivable 75-minute running time, the album frequently runs out of steam as Arthur locks onto a chorus and repeats it endlessly, or as he meanders toward a point that could have been drawn much more succinctly. Also, the backing track seems to exist only to point the listener's attention toward the lyrics, coming off as a light version of Jeff Buckley. The mix of moody organs and acoustic guitars is never unpleasant but breaks no new ground and never really establishes any personality of its own.
This hurts when the lyrics misfire, which happens far too regularly. Arthur's interesting God/woman metaphor is frequently undermined by smaller, unoriginal examples like ""the junkyard of your heart,"" or ""the shores of freedom,"" which draws the listener's attention away from his real point.
For these reasons, Redemption's Son is somewhat of a mixed bag. The album certainly establishes Arthur as a talented songwriter, but unfortunately, the talent isn't manifested consistently enough in the work to lead to an overall satisfying album.
