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Come To Where I’m From
Released 05 April 2000
- In The Sun
- Ashes Everywhere
- Chemical
- History
- Invisible Hands
- Cockroach
- Exhausted
- Eyes On My Back
- Tattoo
- The Real You
- Creation Or A Stain
- Speed Of Light
Liner notes
In its pursuit of unearthing previously unheard music from the planet’s four corners, Real World has never ignored Western rock and pop. No-one’s disqualified. And in Akron, Ohio, the label (or, rather Peter Gabriel himself) found Joseph Arthur, a singer-songwriter with high-proof creative juices oozing out of every pore.
2000’s Come To Where I’m From was his second album for the label. Co-produced by the mighty T-Bone Burnett, it’s a dense, attractively claustrophobic record, full of delightful contradictions: unnerving and reassuring, raw and yet meticulously compiled.
"I wanted to get the songs down in a way that was true to them and true to myself. I really wanted them to have humanity in them. I wanted an element of a gamble in it. I think too much music sounds too contained. I wanted it to sound like it could go out of control at any minute. I didn't want it produced to death." Joseph Arthur
Not content to limit himself to guitar, harmonica and sampling wizardry, Joseph is also a writer, sculptor and painter. His drawings and paintings feature in this album’s artwork, which Joseph co-designed and art directed with Zachary Larner. 1999’s Vacany EP had gained Joseph and Zachary a Grammy nomination for the Best Recording Package.
Anniversary Edition
On 12 June 2020, Joseph Arthur released an expanded digital version of the album to mark the 20th anniversary of its release. This version included two bonus discs: the first, Heavy Bullets, was a collection of previously unheard and unavailable tracks lifted from the 1999 album sessions, and the second was a recording of an acoustic gig from 2000, Live at the Gypsy Tea Room.
Further Listening
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Released 09 June 2002
Joseph Arthur’s third album is a consistently inspired, occasionally frazzled, and often startlingly beautiful album. It's the kind of record with which you can build a slow, sustainable love affair. Its rich textures, vulnerability, and acute, poetic lyrics are guaranteed to slacken jaws and raise goose bumps. -
Released 22 June 1997
On this, Arthur’s 1997 debut, the Ohio singer introduced his experimental folk-rock style and diverse instrumentation, adorning his songs with instruments as varied as hurdy gurdy, corn horn, Venetian xylophone, caxixi, and birimbau.
Further reading
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