JOSEPH ARTHUR
''LOU''
MAY 12 2014
52:56
1 /Walk on the Wild Side 4:00
2 /Sword of Damocles 4:00
3 /Stephanie Says 2:52
4 /Heroin 5:51
5 /NYC Man 3:58
6 /Satellite of Love 4:02
7 /Dirty Blvd. 4:09
8 /Pale Blue Eyes 5:06
9 /Magic and Loss 4:17
10 /Men of Good Fortune 4:22
11 /Wild Child 4:18
12 /Coney Island Baby 6:01
REVIEW
by Timothy Monger
Joseph Arthur was well aware of the expectations and potential pitfalls of recording a Lou Reed tribute album. It wasn't even his idea. When it was pitched to him by Vanguard A&R man Bill Bentley in November 2013, mere weeks after Reed's death, he only very reluctantly agreed to consider the idea. Reed had befriended the New York-based Arthur in the mid-'90s just as his career was beginning to blossom with release of his 1997 debut on Peter Gabriel's Real World label (Reed even took him out for ice cream after signing to celebrate the feat). Sixteen years and ten albums later, a tour-hardened veteran Arthur returned home after weeks on the road to attend his friend's final tribute show at the Apollo Theater and decided to try out a few songs at his home studio using only acoustic guitar and piano. Taking a simplistic approach to Reed's songs was the only way to make this album work. Reed's best music was subtle in that way with phrases and arrangements boiled down to their minimalist essence. He often made huge statements with his understatement and unwavering attitude. Bravely taking on some of the best-known cuts from Reed's canon, Arthur strips songs like "Heroin," "Satellite of Love," and even "Walk on the Wild Side" down, interpreting them honestly and organically with his expressive, embattled voice. There is obvious respect and reverence for the material and for Reed's style, but Arthur is also his own artist with a great body of work and years of touring to his credit. He manages to get lost in these familiar songs without becoming too subservient to their original versions or feeling the need to veer too far from them in order to make his statement. His versions of "Sword of Damocles," "Coney Island Baby," and "Dirty Blvd." are all tactfully handled, receiving more of a wistful reinterpretation than a showboating reinvention. A less experienced artist might not have been so reserved, but the veteran Arthur knows how to treat a song, whether it be his own material or something as iconic as the Velvet Underground's "Stephanie Says." As a tribute, Lou is deftly made and should please, or at the very least fail to offend, Lou Reed fans. As a Joseph Arthur album, it's a nice comedown from 2013's massive, lushly produced double album The Ballad of Boogie Christ. It has the organic purity of an acoustic (American Recordings-era) Rick Rubin production, but sonically falls more in line with something like Robyn Hitchcock's Eye, with its rough edges, beautifully rickety harmonies, and homemade charm. It has the shared benefit of coming across as both an honestly intended tribute to an artistic mentor as well as another well-made record in Arthur's impressive catalog.
------------------------------
aBOUT
By Official Site
“It’s odd dancing around death, odder still if the death you are dancing around is that of a legend. You just never know what’s appropriate and what’s not, what to share and what to keep inside. There is no blueprint. I loved Lou and we were friends. The last thing I would want to do is turn his life into an opportunity, but at the same time, what better way to honor the man and his music than to celebrate it and sing it and record it?” (Joseph Arthur)
This excerpt taken from the liner notes of the upcoming album Lou embodies the spirit in which Arthur set about to record his own interpretations of his favorite Lou Reed songs. Lou, performed, recorded and produced by Joseph Arthur in his home studio, will be released on May 13, 2014 and marks his debut on Vanguard Records.
Joseph Arthur, the critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated singer-songwriter further explains his thoughts on the journey to record Lou. From the album liner notes:
“The three weeks of touring passed by quickly and suddenly I was home, snowed-in in my studio, holidays approaching, end of tour blues, all coupled with the fact that the day I got back to NYC was the final tribute show for Lou at the Apollo and I went almost without wanting to. I was tired of mourning him and it felt like I was done, but in truth, the real mourning was only just beginning.
Death, like life, works with your resistance and finally it wears you out and breaks you down and then you are too tired to do anything but face it.
I was home alone and there was nowhere to go.
I set up some mics.
A Coles ribbon mic
And a Wunder mic which is a version of a U47 (I used those two mics on the whole record). The ribbon gives it silk and warmth, the Wunder makes it hi-fi.
The first song I tried was “Coney Island Baby.”
And I liked how it came out.
But I also liked getting to hang out with Lou again.
This was the only way to get close.
I did another song and another still.
I made a rule:
No drums or electricity.
Lou was electric.
The only way I know to give new life to something as rich with life as Lou’s songs and recordings is to go about them in a completely different way.
Bill’s (Bentley) advice to just keep it simple and not overthink it kinda acted as my mission statement and in each song, I felt I revealed something new in it.
Making versions, not trying to outdo the originals (impossible), but rather versions that bring out something unheard before.
I felt I was doing that to some degree and I felt guidance in it.
I was saying goodbye.”
------------------------------
BIOGRAPHY
by MacKenzie Wilson
Ohio native Joseph Arthur was discovered by Peter Gabriel, who signed the folk-rock songwriter to Real World Records in the mid-'90s. Arthur's debut, Big City Secrets, was released in 1997 and went fairly unnoticed, despite an eclectic, brooding sound influenced by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joe Henry, and the late Jeff Buckley. Gabriel influenced Arthur's music, too, exposing his songwriting to a global palette, roping him into Gabriel's annual WOMAD shows, and giving him a roster of fellow labelmates -- including Ben Harper and Gomez -- to tour with during the decade's latter half. Arthur steadily earned an audience of his own, attracting some attention for his work as a visual artist as well.
In 1999, Arthur released the seven-song EP Vacancy and received a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package, thanks to the hand-folded design by art director Zachary Larner. The sophomore effort Come to Where I'm From appeared one year later, featuring production from alt-country icon T-Bone Burnett and distribution by Virgin Records. The album showed Arthur's musical fondness for basic country-rock and Americana, and he spent the rest of 2000 headlining club shows across North America and serving as an opening act for The The. Two years later, Arthur issued the four-EP series Junkyard Hearts, a precursor to his third opus, Redemption's Son. North American dates with Tracy Chapman followed in summer 2003, then one year later the critically acclaimed Our Shadows Will Remain appeared.
After starting his own label, Lonely Astronaut (distributed by Sony), Arthur published a collection of his artwork entitled We Almost Made It, complete with a mostly instrumental accompaniment, The Invisible Parade, during the spring of 2006. A few months later, fans were greeted with his fifth record, Nuclear Daydream, as well as a tour that featured Arthur with a full live band, something he had never done before. Arthur also provided vocals for "Sublime," from the Twilight Singers' iTunes-only five-song EP A Stitch in Time. In April 2007, he partnered with his band once again to record Let's Just Be, the second album released on his own label.
The following year brought even more material, with Arthur releasing no less than four EPs during the first seven months of the year (Could We Survive, Crazy Rain, Vagabond Skies, Foreign Girls) and a full album, Temporary People, in September. In February 2010, Arthur teamed up with Dhani Harrison and Ben Harper to form Fistful of Mercy, a folk-rock trio whose debut album, As I Call You Down, was released later that year. The band toured off and on during 2010 and continued playing sporadic shows in 2011, but that didn't stop Arthur from furthering his solo career with The Graduation Ceremony, which appeared in May 2011. Early the following year, he self-released his next solo work, the double album Redemption City, as a digital download (the LP issue followed later that year). Ever ambitious -- as well as prolific -- Arthur focused on completing a confessional concept record he had envisioned over a decade earlier -- some of its songs had been in his live show that long. Without a label, he reached out to fans on the Pledge Music crowd-funding site and realized 170-percent of his goal. The end result was his "psychedelic soul" record, The Ballad of Boogie Christ which was released in June of 2013. The following year, Arthur released an all-acoustic tribute album of Lou Reed songs titled Lou.
OFFICIAL SITE
''LOU''
MAY 12 2014
52:56
1 /Walk on the Wild Side 4:00
2 /Sword of Damocles 4:00
3 /Stephanie Says 2:52
4 /Heroin 5:51
5 /NYC Man 3:58
6 /Satellite of Love 4:02
7 /Dirty Blvd. 4:09
8 /Pale Blue Eyes 5:06
9 /Magic and Loss 4:17
10 /Men of Good Fortune 4:22
11 /Wild Child 4:18
12 /Coney Island Baby 6:01
REVIEW
by Timothy Monger
Joseph Arthur was well aware of the expectations and potential pitfalls of recording a Lou Reed tribute album. It wasn't even his idea. When it was pitched to him by Vanguard A&R man Bill Bentley in November 2013, mere weeks after Reed's death, he only very reluctantly agreed to consider the idea. Reed had befriended the New York-based Arthur in the mid-'90s just as his career was beginning to blossom with release of his 1997 debut on Peter Gabriel's Real World label (Reed even took him out for ice cream after signing to celebrate the feat). Sixteen years and ten albums later, a tour-hardened veteran Arthur returned home after weeks on the road to attend his friend's final tribute show at the Apollo Theater and decided to try out a few songs at his home studio using only acoustic guitar and piano. Taking a simplistic approach to Reed's songs was the only way to make this album work. Reed's best music was subtle in that way with phrases and arrangements boiled down to their minimalist essence. He often made huge statements with his understatement and unwavering attitude. Bravely taking on some of the best-known cuts from Reed's canon, Arthur strips songs like "Heroin," "Satellite of Love," and even "Walk on the Wild Side" down, interpreting them honestly and organically with his expressive, embattled voice. There is obvious respect and reverence for the material and for Reed's style, but Arthur is also his own artist with a great body of work and years of touring to his credit. He manages to get lost in these familiar songs without becoming too subservient to their original versions or feeling the need to veer too far from them in order to make his statement. His versions of "Sword of Damocles," "Coney Island Baby," and "Dirty Blvd." are all tactfully handled, receiving more of a wistful reinterpretation than a showboating reinvention. A less experienced artist might not have been so reserved, but the veteran Arthur knows how to treat a song, whether it be his own material or something as iconic as the Velvet Underground's "Stephanie Says." As a tribute, Lou is deftly made and should please, or at the very least fail to offend, Lou Reed fans. As a Joseph Arthur album, it's a nice comedown from 2013's massive, lushly produced double album The Ballad of Boogie Christ. It has the organic purity of an acoustic (American Recordings-era) Rick Rubin production, but sonically falls more in line with something like Robyn Hitchcock's Eye, with its rough edges, beautifully rickety harmonies, and homemade charm. It has the shared benefit of coming across as both an honestly intended tribute to an artistic mentor as well as another well-made record in Arthur's impressive catalog.
------------------------------
aBOUT
By Official Site
“It’s odd dancing around death, odder still if the death you are dancing around is that of a legend. You just never know what’s appropriate and what’s not, what to share and what to keep inside. There is no blueprint. I loved Lou and we were friends. The last thing I would want to do is turn his life into an opportunity, but at the same time, what better way to honor the man and his music than to celebrate it and sing it and record it?” (Joseph Arthur)
This excerpt taken from the liner notes of the upcoming album Lou embodies the spirit in which Arthur set about to record his own interpretations of his favorite Lou Reed songs. Lou, performed, recorded and produced by Joseph Arthur in his home studio, will be released on May 13, 2014 and marks his debut on Vanguard Records.
Joseph Arthur, the critically acclaimed, Grammy nominated singer-songwriter further explains his thoughts on the journey to record Lou. From the album liner notes:
“The three weeks of touring passed by quickly and suddenly I was home, snowed-in in my studio, holidays approaching, end of tour blues, all coupled with the fact that the day I got back to NYC was the final tribute show for Lou at the Apollo and I went almost without wanting to. I was tired of mourning him and it felt like I was done, but in truth, the real mourning was only just beginning.
Death, like life, works with your resistance and finally it wears you out and breaks you down and then you are too tired to do anything but face it.
I was home alone and there was nowhere to go.
I set up some mics.
A Coles ribbon mic
And a Wunder mic which is a version of a U47 (I used those two mics on the whole record). The ribbon gives it silk and warmth, the Wunder makes it hi-fi.
The first song I tried was “Coney Island Baby.”
And I liked how it came out.
But I also liked getting to hang out with Lou again.
This was the only way to get close.
I did another song and another still.
I made a rule:
No drums or electricity.
Lou was electric.
The only way I know to give new life to something as rich with life as Lou’s songs and recordings is to go about them in a completely different way.
Bill’s (Bentley) advice to just keep it simple and not overthink it kinda acted as my mission statement and in each song, I felt I revealed something new in it.
Making versions, not trying to outdo the originals (impossible), but rather versions that bring out something unheard before.
I felt I was doing that to some degree and I felt guidance in it.
I was saying goodbye.”
------------------------------
BIOGRAPHY
by MacKenzie Wilson
Ohio native Joseph Arthur was discovered by Peter Gabriel, who signed the folk-rock songwriter to Real World Records in the mid-'90s. Arthur's debut, Big City Secrets, was released in 1997 and went fairly unnoticed, despite an eclectic, brooding sound influenced by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joe Henry, and the late Jeff Buckley. Gabriel influenced Arthur's music, too, exposing his songwriting to a global palette, roping him into Gabriel's annual WOMAD shows, and giving him a roster of fellow labelmates -- including Ben Harper and Gomez -- to tour with during the decade's latter half. Arthur steadily earned an audience of his own, attracting some attention for his work as a visual artist as well.
In 1999, Arthur released the seven-song EP Vacancy and received a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package, thanks to the hand-folded design by art director Zachary Larner. The sophomore effort Come to Where I'm From appeared one year later, featuring production from alt-country icon T-Bone Burnett and distribution by Virgin Records. The album showed Arthur's musical fondness for basic country-rock and Americana, and he spent the rest of 2000 headlining club shows across North America and serving as an opening act for The The. Two years later, Arthur issued the four-EP series Junkyard Hearts, a precursor to his third opus, Redemption's Son. North American dates with Tracy Chapman followed in summer 2003, then one year later the critically acclaimed Our Shadows Will Remain appeared.
After starting his own label, Lonely Astronaut (distributed by Sony), Arthur published a collection of his artwork entitled We Almost Made It, complete with a mostly instrumental accompaniment, The Invisible Parade, during the spring of 2006. A few months later, fans were greeted with his fifth record, Nuclear Daydream, as well as a tour that featured Arthur with a full live band, something he had never done before. Arthur also provided vocals for "Sublime," from the Twilight Singers' iTunes-only five-song EP A Stitch in Time. In April 2007, he partnered with his band once again to record Let's Just Be, the second album released on his own label.
The following year brought even more material, with Arthur releasing no less than four EPs during the first seven months of the year (Could We Survive, Crazy Rain, Vagabond Skies, Foreign Girls) and a full album, Temporary People, in September. In February 2010, Arthur teamed up with Dhani Harrison and Ben Harper to form Fistful of Mercy, a folk-rock trio whose debut album, As I Call You Down, was released later that year. The band toured off and on during 2010 and continued playing sporadic shows in 2011, but that didn't stop Arthur from furthering his solo career with The Graduation Ceremony, which appeared in May 2011. Early the following year, he self-released his next solo work, the double album Redemption City, as a digital download (the LP issue followed later that year). Ever ambitious -- as well as prolific -- Arthur focused on completing a confessional concept record he had envisioned over a decade earlier -- some of its songs had been in his live show that long. Without a label, he reached out to fans on the Pledge Music crowd-funding site and realized 170-percent of his goal. The end result was his "psychedelic soul" record, The Ballad of Boogie Christ which was released in June of 2013. The following year, Arthur released an all-acoustic tribute album of Lou Reed songs titled Lou.
OFFICIAL SITE
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