On their second collaboration, Peter Buck and cult troubadour Joseph Arthur make some late-period indie magic
“You’re the pick of the week/You’re the editor’s hot pick/For the third week in a row,” sings Joseph Arthur on Arthur Buck 2, his second collaboration with former R.E.M. jangle master Peter Buck. If anyone should know about the highs and lows of show-biz life, it’s Arthur. For the last quarter century, he’s been our great lost singer-songwriter, with sometimes only himself to blame for the “lost” part. Despite an innate gift for melodic beauty and a bedraggled voice that would rouse itself to startling intensity, he was often derailed by substance abuse issues and a deluge of releases that were clearly in need of an editor or A&R executive to prune.
But every so often, on later albums like The Graduation Ceremony, Arthur summoned up the potential heard on early 21st century albums like Come to Where I’m From and Our Shadows Will Remain, and Arthur Buck 2 is one of those moments. Even more so than their 2018 debut, Buck sounds as if he’s been itching to crank his guitars as loud as he did on Monster, and the record often comes off as the glam-folk sequel to that album (or Automatic for the People) we didn’t think we needed. The foggy jangle of “Everywhere” would have been at home on Automatic, and dense clutter of voice and guitars on “Where Are You Calling?” brings to mind “Let Me In” from Monster.
But Arthur is a more straightforward lyricist than Michael Stipe, and Arthur Buck 2 is largely its own charmingly shambolic beast. Arthur can sometimes sound as if he’s just woken up and is desperate for coffe. But more often that not, Buck’s power chords and the careening energy of the arrangements (which include a cameo by Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker) rouses Arthur and his songs, with regularly majestic results: “Sleep with One Eye Open” and “No Answer” manage to be simultaneously murky and resplendent.
As a writer, Arthur still explores familiar territory. These are songs about reconnecting with someone similarly broken or seeking a bond with someone that could, just maybe, save both of them. As Arthur sings in “Average Ghost,” “You got one life to go/One more chance to rock & roll /Get yourself up off the floor/One more chance to save your soul.” On Arthur Buck 2, he gives himself another one of those new opportunities.
