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Joseph Arthur — Wasted Days
Album: Redemption City
Avg rating:
5.8

Your rating:
Total ratings: 549









Released: 2012
Length: 5:10
Plays (last 30 days): 0
Here is my voice of wild damnation
Here is my goodbye song
Here is my suicide bleeding eternal
Here is nowhere to belong

Here is the vein cut wide and grinning
Here are the misery teeth
Here is the drunk in the still room spinning
And the light in the widow's grief

Here is your will of rot but frozen
Stuck as if death won't care
Here is your life lost and sitting
Just floating like pollution in air

Here is denial in skulls electric
Still buzzing and from the chair
Death row blunders, fat man switches
The surge which will spike your hair

Here is rebellion which death affords me
Out of step with these times
Feel free as you drink from the blood I give you
Swallow my love and my crimes

Here is a shadow a blitzkrieg a warlord
Here is a saint and a nun
Here is a rapist a rodent a Buddha
Forgetting the things he has done

In these wasted days
With your broken memory
You find a higher place
In a separate world

In these wasted days
You hum a fragile melody
But you lost your way
And now you just can't see

Have you a dream or perhaps a nightmare
Have you a gun or a rose
Have you a name or are you transparent
Invisible without your clothes

When you are naked
When you are hungry
When you are free to be gone
Have you a will
Have you a reason
Have you a voice or a song

This is rebellion
A bleeding a beauty
This is what will be ignored
The morals around us call out for violence
Like comfort of those who are bored

Suck back your hostage
Light up your handle
Give all your donkeys away
For when you are here undone and spinning
There is nowhere you can stay

In these wasted days
With your broken memory
You find a higher place
In a separate world

In these wasted days
You hum a fragile melody
But you lost your way
And now you just can't see

So look into me, look into rebellion
Here I just speak to your soul
Tragedy's yearning the strength to surrender
Knowing it's all just a hole

So look into me, look into rebellion
Here I just speak to your soul
Tragedy's yearning the strength to surrender
Knowing it's all just a hole

Tell me the truth
And show me the sky
Tell me you're coming baby
Tell me goodbye
Burn in the fire
As you're saving your soul
Then make believe you've got it all under control

Tell me to call then show me the line
Feel how they fall one by one into your eyes
Tell me you see then show me you're blind
Tell me you're free as you drop kick your mind

Tell me the truth
And show me the sky
Tell me you're coming baby
Tell me goodbye
Burn in the fire
As your saving your soul
Then make believe you've got it all under control

Tell me to call then show me the line
Feel how they fall one by one into your eyes
Tell me you see then show me you're blind
Tell me you're free as you drop kick your mind
Comments (77)add comment
very derivative of late Butthole Surfers. Interesting background driving music if for nothing else than accompanying the monotony.
sounds too much like rap to me.. no good ...

 
Goatseph Arthur = Yuck - PSD time
Just dropped from 2 to 1.
Changing this from a 3 to a 2 after hearing it again today. PSD.
 Ag3nt0rang3 wrote:
The lyrics are crap. A moody high-school kid with a truck-sized chip on his shoulder could do better. The music — you could get away with it in the late eighties or maybe early nineties, but now we expect better. 3 —> 1

 
Harsh!  

So much of the RP gallery does not like this.  Interesting.   
boring {#Eek}
ok, so this sucks
just climbed to a quite likeable 7 today with that driving beat.. {#Motor}
The lyrics are crap. A moody high-school kid with a truck-sized chip on his shoulder could do better. The music — you could get away with it in the late eighties or maybe early nineties, but now we expect better. 3 —> 1
 Bosami wrote:


I hear you - it takes discipline to listen to a whole record these days, much less a double album. I find that I can put on new music and go about my work; the good songs make a nice backdrop to the day, the great songs make me stop what I'm doing. I stopped what I was doing several times upon listening to this one.

 
Yeah, JA stops me too—not every song but surely this one. A lot of RPers don't like him but I enjoy the singsong rhyming here. 
 melzabutch wrote:

Ditto that till I looked.

 
I love moby! 
 Derk_Decibel wrote:
Moby ?

 
Ditto that till I looked.
 joelbb wrote:
I do sincerely hope that one day some chemist, alchemist or wizard will create the majik elixir which will enable this bloviating narcissist to get over himself.  Sucko-barfo, along w/ all his other "tunes".

 
Yep, bloviating sums it up quite nicely.
The Moj tunes out...
bloviating

New vocabulary! :-)
Moby ?
Sorry, I just can't get behind this. I like Joseph Arthur a lot, but this is like somebody reading a PowerPoint presentation with a particularly uninteresting music track behind it.
 rdo wrote:
He is bloviating.  There is nothing wrong with bloviating per se.  In music it usually is not good.
 
That's a good word: bloviating. I will commit that to memory. I like Arthur's Mother of Exiles but some of the other songs are, well...
a tad numbing. Not bad phrasing, just... long-winded.  Final opinion pending. {#Music}
no baggage here with uh, Joseph Arthur.  never heard of him, so i don't know where his head is stuck!  i didn't find the lyrics stupid and thought the arrangement fairly creative.
 
He is bloviating.  There is nothing wrong with bloviating per se.  In music it usually is not good.
1 < 3
 fredriley wrote:

"bloviating"?!?

I don't get why RP listeners are so down on this song, but maybe it's because so many have 'issues' with the artist himself. I'd not heard of him before this so there's no 'baggage', and I quite like this song, for all that I'm not usually a fan of singers speaking rather than speaking. Still, the Nottingham jury is very often at odds with mainstream RP community feeling...

 
His lyrics are fatuous.  What he needs is a vente-sized cup of get-over-himself.
 joelbb wrote:
I do sincerely hope that one day some chemist, alchemist or wizard will create the majik elixir which will enable this bloviating narcissist to get over himself.  Sucko-barfo, along w/ all his other "tunes".

 
"bloviating"?!?

I don't get why RP listeners are so down on this song, but maybe it's because so many have 'issues' with the artist himself. I'd not heard of him before this so there's no 'baggage', and I quite like this song, for all that I'm not usually a fan of singers speaking rather than speaking. Still, the Nottingham jury is very often at odds with mainstream RP community feeling...
This is something of a first here at RP. The comments for this track are almost uniformly negative. 
But I like it. A lot. You drecker wreckers can bury this track. I'm pumping it to an 8.
So many of you can exalt that robo dreck of Arcade Fire.  They mean well in their lyrics; but I find their musical execution to be sophomoric at best. Mr. Arthur here is reaching for something. Apparently, some of you aren't reading the f'ing newspapers. Telling it like it is, and that we can do better, is not negative and it's not narcissistic. In fact, some of you are too full of yourselves. Don't look now, but that is one definition of the final word of the sentence before the previous one. 
Some French acts have a hip-hop/rap type sound that makes me think of this.  One of them is pied-noir or at least North African.

Good stuff if you like prose.   
I mean sometimes you might you at all the negativity in the world --- the world's gone dark on you or someone you love. The point I think is to vent it creatively which this does, which makes us feel sucko barfo
 joelbb wrote:
Blame us, blame the Boomers.  We were the bozos who first told musicians not just that we liked their music, but that they were profound and insightful, far more so than other mere mortals.  That was a HUGE mistake which led inevitably to crapola like this going out over the internet.  This jerk probably thinks he's a major intellect.  So do the morons who are out there right now nodding knowingly and thinking, "Heavy, Man, heavy."  And it's all our fault.  Sorry.

 
wow.  this and your other post are pretty scathing.  I actually like this guy a bit and even had him as the seed artist in Pandora for several weeks.  I will agree with you about the boomers for sure.
 fedtho wrote:

I'm glad I took the time to read your comment from start to end.
I second it with all my heart.

 
wow
The good news is that this is far less annoying than the other song RP was playing so very often. But that's the extent of the good news, I am afraid.
teen angst?

I remember it well, it was horrible. 
I do sincerely hope that one day some chemist, alchemist or wizard will create the majik elixir which will enable this bloviating narcissist to get over himself.  Sucko-barfo, along w/ all his other "tunes".
A bunch of negativity, to be sure.
Lave Beta Band, I have a weakness for durge.
 Xstar wrote:
Wide range listening enables us to focus on the sound we like the best.  It isn't because something necessarily lacks merit, but because it's not for us that it doesn't score higher in our estimation.  Leonard Cohen scores low in my ears no matter how I try, but I get it that some like him.  I like this well enough for an 8, maybe on another day it might score lower.  Beck isn't for everyone ether but he always scores high with me cuz I dig his vibe.  Don't be a hater for anything and everything sounds better.

 
I'm glad I took the time to read your comment from start to end.
I second it with all my heart.
Wide range listening enables us to focus on the sound we like the best.  It isn't because something necessarily lacks merit, but because it's not for us that it doesn't score higher in our estimation.  Leonard Cohen scores low in my ears no matter how I try, but I get it that some like him.  I like this well enough for an 8, maybe on another day it might score lower.  Beck isn't for everyone ether but he always scores high with me cuz I dig his vibe.  Don't be a hater for anything and everything sounds better.
I wasn't fond of Joseph Arthur before (so I spose I should just shut up...) but I really don't like the direction he's been going.
 I came here to say that Moby is so bad. 
Now I find that there's two of them!
 Ugh.
Moby is better..
 tulfan wrote:
This is the kind of drek I am trying to avoid...I thought RP would be a refuge from it...nope...
 

Well bye bye then!!
Hey!  I think I like this.  Need another listen to make sure.
The hating on this song speaks for itself.
This is the kind of drek I am trying to avoid...I thought RP would be a refuge from it...nope...
 lshinkawa wrote:
too much talking in this song

 
Yep. Bingo.
Things matter.  That is what I like about this song. 
Thoughtful, creative lyrics. A poet.
Moby, moby ..mmm.. ok, but has anyone compared this to echo & the bunnymen yet?
Reminds me of Moby. Kind of a run on words, over and over. Not bad though.

OK.  It is adolescent.  Young man.  

 

Catchy all the same.  


 mikec09 wrote:
Tedious, listening to this highly attitudinal song.  Yeah, I know, there *are* some songs that have an attitude that *are* good, but this is not one of those.
  Tedious is exactly what came to mind for me.
 mgoldman wrote:
Here is me hitting the PSD.....
 
Ditto
Tedious, listening to this highly attitudinal song.  Yeah, I know, there *are* some songs that have an attitude that *are* good, but this is not one of those.
Blame us, blame the Boomers.  We were the bozos who first told musicians not just that we liked their music, but that they were profound and insightful, far more so than other mere mortals.  That was a HUGE mistake which led inevitably to crapola like this going out over the internet.  This jerk probably thinks he's a major intellect.  So do the morons who are out there right now nodding knowingly and thinking, "Heavy, Man, heavy."  And it's all our fault.  Sorry.
Here is me hitting the PSD.....
Ugh. Sounds a lot like Moby of so many years ago. Been there, sorry I did that. 
..color me impressed..
 kcar wrote:

My attention wanders about four songs from the end, but it is a double album. The first 3-4 songs, including this one and "Travel as Equals", are outstanding. It'd been a long time since I listened to a whole album, so I had to work to get back in that groove. 
 

I hear you - it takes discipline to listen to a whole record these days, much less a double album. I find that I can put on new music and go about my work; the good songs make a nice backdrop to the day, the great songs make me stop what I'm doing. I stopped what I was doing several times upon listening to this one.


Hilarious.  It does sound kinda derivative but still OK.
 Jamunca wrote:
First!

Also, Joseph Arthur has a free download of this double album on his website. 
 
Good because I wouldn't pay for this mediocrity.
I'm hearing Pet Shop Boys.... ugh...
Make it Stop!
This is the second time I've heard this din.  I prefer hangovers.
{#Beat}
too much talking in this song
 Bosami wrote:


On first listen this entire record was very good.
 
My attention wanders about four songs from the end, but it is a double album. The first 3-4 songs, including this one and "Travel as Equals", are outstanding. It'd been a long time since I listened to a whole album, so I had to work to get back in that groove. 


 Jamunca wrote:
First!

Also, Joseph Arthur has a free download of this double album on his website. 
 

On first listen this entire record was very good.
Moby is very talented.

JayGuerette wrote:
Nah, more talent than Moby; can actually sing.
 


...yeah, i totally thought this was moby, too...
 JayGuerette wrote:
Nah, more talent than Moby; can actually sing.
 
heh Have you HEARD him on "Travel as Equals"??

And that's coming from a JA fan! :-) 
 Jamunca wrote:
First!

Also, Joseph Arthur has a free download of this double album on his website. 
 

Thank you! {#Sunny}
Nah, more talent than Moby; can actually sing.
 oldsaxon wrote:
Moby called, he wants his ideas back.
 
well played...
Definitely one of those songs that will either intrigue or annoy. I'm going with the first one. This is an 8.  Joseph Arthur seems to be reaching for something more in every tune I hear. I could definitely rock out to this. 
 oldsaxon wrote:
Moby called, he wants his ideas back.
 
You beat me to the punch {#Nyah}
Moby called, he wants his ideas back.
7 first time prolly go higher.

Jangly geetar,  Pettyish, late 70's sound, nice.
Hmmm? Quite likeable.
Worthy of a 7.
But do we need another Moby?
First!

Also, Joseph Arthur has a free download of this double album on his website.