{"id":5455,"date":"2011-07-16T20:48:40","date_gmt":"2011-07-16T20:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=5455"},"modified":"2011-07-16T21:52:26","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T21:52:26","slug":"joseph-arthur-the-graduation-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2011-07\/joseph-arthur-the-graduation-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Arthur–The Graduation Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

When he’s on his game, Joseph Arthur<\/strong> is amongst our favorite songwriters.\u00a0 His quartet of consecutive records put out last decade, consisting of Come to Where I’m From, Redemption’s Son, Our Shadows Will Remain, <\/strong>and Nuclear Daydream<\/strong>, set very lofty bars for Arthur to be measured against.\u00a0 And the trouble is: sometimes he’s off his game.\u00a0 It’s then that the world goes off-axis for us.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Joseph’s back full-on with a phenomenal new record entitled, “The Graduation Ceremony.” <\/strong> He can rock with the best of them, but he moves us most with his melancholy, heart-rending songs which are at times wrapped up in deceptively-upbeat musical cloaks.\u00a0 The new album’s songs, Midwest <\/strong><\/em>and Love Never Asks You to Lie,<\/strong><\/em> are perfect examples of Arthur at his world-weary, wistful best.\u00a0 Not all the songs off The Graduation Ceremony are as lyrically heavy as those two, but clearly Joseph’s feeding from the heartbreak muse on the new album.<\/p>\n

We hail from the hail-ridden Midwest and its weight-of-the-world humidity summers.\u00a0 So of course the first song we heard off the new album, Midwest, <\/strong><\/em>twisted us into nostalgic knots.\u00a0 Listen in to this beauty, replete with Arthur’s multi-tracked harmonies, below the song lyrics.\u00a0 And then check out a live-from-the-road version of the song.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing to do in the Midwest but dream
\nLike spiders on the walls of abandoned factories
\nSetting fire to the trash, dance beneath the fog
\nWhen the cops come we run like hell
\nStealing from our souls born cheap out here
\nA dream that can’t compete up against the fear
\nOf never getting away
\nAnd there’s nothing to do in the Midwest but dream<\/p>\n

There’s nothing to do in the Midwest but dream
\nInto the earth and out of the past
\nWe plug in our guitars and begin to feed off the spirits in the air
\nFlying in our minds, the sound we try to hear
\nIs so many years from ever being defined
\nBut there’s nothing to do in the Midwest but dream
\nBut dream”<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G3IFFEH1lgw&feature=player_embedded#at=56<\/p>\n