REVIEW : Let's Just Be - L.A Times
Arthur once again seeks his own orbit
*** (aka "good")
Another title that twists a classic pop reference (Arthur's 2002 album was "Redemption's Son") and another Arthurian application of pretzel logic to classic pop traditions. But might surrounding himself with a six-strong support crew rein in some of this often-lone astronaut's more indulgent, introspective tendencies? The album certainly starts on a relatively straight-ahead note with the shambling, Stones-y "Diamond Ring." But never fear: The next song, "Good Life," begins with sloshing-water sounds and ends with a snort and a scream.
Even that doesn't prepare one for the theme song, "Lonely Astronaut," the 20-minute centerpiece of this sprawling 78-minute epic. The track starts innocently enough, on the quieter end of the rough-hewn American scale covering most of the album. But then it churns into increasing intensity and ultimately chaos, out of which a little repeating pattern emerges. It's as if the song got hiccups and can't shake them. For about eight minutes.
Still, even that carries the album's casual feel, a down-to-earth tone that grounds even such otherworldly highlights as the Bowie-referencing "Spaceman" and the closing, melancholy raga-folk "Star Song." It's the natural setting for the coed Astronauts, whose members' past credits include the Jayhawks, Natalie Merchant and the Twilight Singers. Some more outré passages could have benefited from mad-scientist tinkering. But the mad-Mick Jagger that Arthur affects on the nasty "Cocaine Feet" and elsewhere is still nicely twisted.
*** (aka "good")
Another title that twists a classic pop reference (Arthur's 2002 album was "Redemption's Son") and another Arthurian application of pretzel logic to classic pop traditions. But might surrounding himself with a six-strong support crew rein in some of this often-lone astronaut's more indulgent, introspective tendencies? The album certainly starts on a relatively straight-ahead note with the shambling, Stones-y "Diamond Ring." But never fear: The next song, "Good Life," begins with sloshing-water sounds and ends with a snort and a scream.
Even that doesn't prepare one for the theme song, "Lonely Astronaut," the 20-minute centerpiece of this sprawling 78-minute epic. The track starts innocently enough, on the quieter end of the rough-hewn American scale covering most of the album. But then it churns into increasing intensity and ultimately chaos, out of which a little repeating pattern emerges. It's as if the song got hiccups and can't shake them. For about eight minutes.
Still, even that carries the album's casual feel, a down-to-earth tone that grounds even such otherworldly highlights as the Bowie-referencing "Spaceman" and the closing, melancholy raga-folk "Star Song." It's the natural setting for the coed Astronauts, whose members' past credits include the Jayhawks, Natalie Merchant and the Twilight Singers. Some more outré passages could have benefited from mad-scientist tinkering. But the mad-Mick Jagger that Arthur affects on the nasty "Cocaine Feet" and elsewhere is still nicely twisted.
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