My last selection, The Hold Steady!, was panned by an anonymous poster, who I believe was former New York Mets Hawaiian superstar Mr. Sid. Mr. Sid is stuck in a musical vortex where any music produced after 1992 is avant-garde. Mr. Sid objected to the vocal stylings of the Hold Steady's lead singer, Craig Finn, and I can understand his objection, but Mr. Sid is the same man who likes Neil Young.
Recently, I keep on finding myself going back to Joseph Arthur's 2004 release Our Shadows Will Remain. What piqued my curiosity about Joseph Arthur was Greg Dulli's plug for the man. In my opinion, anything that Dulli likes is worth checking out and the man's recommendation was spot on. If you dig Greg Dulli and the Twilight Singers, this is an album you have to check out.
I keep on finding Our Shadows Will Remain in the cd player, in the car's cd player and everywhere I go. I can't get enough of this album. It's dark, ethereal, poignant, and an autopsy of what one person's love can truly mean to another. In Arthur's achingly delicate examination of unrequited love, "A Smile That Explodes", he gives us these lyrics:
Too young to fall
For a light I think I see
Can't say for sure
The plants have died,
My hair has grown
From the thought of you
Coming home
Cuz it ain't easier
Waking up at dawn
To find I lost my crown
If I found you there
With flowers in your hair
I'd hold you in my arms
Till we came back down
A smile that explodes
I could never understand
My room too small
To get by without the help of alcohol
Pin my arm to the wall
Now I'm too gone to fight
Not afraid to fall
Cuz it ain't easier
Waking up at dawn
To find I lost my crown
If I found you there
With flowers in your hair
I' d hold you in my arms
Until we came back down
A smile that explodes
I could never understand
I write one more
Letter I won't send
Except for across the floor
The last stanza is a harsh truth about love and that one letter that we would like to send, the letter that continues to evolve, the letter that has been painstakingly written over and over until it falls silently to the floor.
This is an album. It's not a collection of songs to add to an iPod, but this is a work of art that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Grab a bottle of wine, turn down the lights and listen.
Can't Exist by Joseph Arthur
