Originally
published in Skyscraper
So soon after the release of Our Shadows Will Remain and Joseph Arthur gifts us with And the Thieves Are Gone. Six strong songs comprise the EP with extras from the Our Shadows sessions hitched together with rare older tracks. As he did on Arthur's debut album, a father figure looms in the foreground. On the opening track "Papa," Arthur sings, "I needed you to love me. But you did not know how to love." It’s the distraught prayer of a son seeking the approval of a father who’s never coming home. All sinewy and sensuous, "My Home Is Your Head" follows and features a scalding bassline and slide guitar. "Savior of the Sun" is a giddy jangly clapfest. On the tender twinkly "Real as Rain," Arthur praises a lover’s comforting presence. Then “Anywhere With You” runs a riotous path though the second half of the disk. It’s a rambunctious 7-minute song, which smacks of early Roxy Music, rife with all manner of sonic effects and colorful lyrics. The insanely infectious “Glass Pipe” caps off the disk. Lazy and hazy (as you might expect), it’s a sexy mélange of blues, rock, and trip hop with a wickedly insistent drum track and gurgling guitars. Thieves may be an EP, but it proves an exceptional one with plenty to sink your teeth into.
Official
site
Robert Stribley
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