Ben Arthur

Arthur croons like Duncan Sheik if he had a pair—shoe-gazing, can-kicking and remorseful only in retrospect…on Edible Darling, singer-songwriter Ben Arthur pulls off the rare feat of being both sincere and humorous, leaving listeners with the impression that he’s a confidant with whom they can easily identify. His unassuming nature makes him stick out of the pack. - CMJ

Arthur croons like Duncan Sheik if he had a pair—shoe-gazing, can-kicking and remorseful only in retrospect…on Edible Darling, singer-songwriter Ben Arthur pulls off the rare feat of being both sincere and humorous, leaving listeners with the impression that he’s a confidant with whom they can easily identify. His unassuming nature makes him stick out of the pack. - CMJ

The quirky optimism that marked Ben Arthur's first album Edible Darling has aged and darkened on his long-awaited second disc, Mouthfeel. A slippery disc in sound and meaning, the set ranges from familiar, pop-influenced Americana to songs like "On a Sunday," which burrows intimately into love, pain, and loss.

Flipping through photographs, the "relics of disintegration," Arthur tells the story of a man left behind: "This one here is of my girl before the war / When I came back, she'd had a baby / I was gone a year and a half / Still she said she missed me." The persistent warble of the single organ note in the background both supports and mourns the passing of these times, while underpinning a hauntingly poignant melody.

Arthur's quiet, defeated-sounding voice maintains purpose and gains strength in the retelling, but he avoids a grand climax, instead dipping back down to settle in for wispy remembrance. Later Polaroids of his wife in "crinoline and wire" sepia-tone the image, but otherwise, the song shifts freely through time. It encompasses loss from every age — countless Sundays that pass to reveal new Mondays. - NPR

The quirky optimism that marked Ben Arthur's first album Edible Darling has aged and darkened on his long-awaited second disc, Mouthfeel. A slippery disc in sound and meaning, the set ranges from familiar, pop-influenced Americana to songs like "On a Sunday," which burrows intimately into love, pain, and loss.

Flipping through photographs, the "relics of disintegration," Arthur tells the story of a man left behind: "This one here is of my girl before the war / When I came back, she'd had a baby / I was gone a year and a half / Still she said she missed me." The persistent warble of the single organ note in the background both supports and mourns the passing of these times, while underpinning a hauntingly poignant melody.

Arthur's quiet, defeated-sounding voice maintains purpose and gains strength in the retelling, but he avoids a grand climax, instead dipping back down to settle in for wispy remembrance. Later Polaroids of his wife in "crinoline and wire" sepia-tone the image, but otherwise, the song shifts freely through time. It encompasses loss from every age — countless Sundays that pass to reveal new Mondays. - NPR

Ben Arthur's got the looks and hooks of John Mayer, with highly produced, Americana-tinged pop that will appeal to fans of the Wallflowers or latter-day Jayhawks. His second album, Edible Darling, opens with a radio-ready anthem to sexual frustration, "Mary Ann," setting lyrics about dry humping and uncertainty to turntable scratches and beats. The rest of the album is driven by melody and guitar rhythms rather than electronic gizmos, and Arthur keeps the energy high, save for a mid-disc acoustic instrumental interlude. But Arthur is best when it sounds like he's just tossing one off, as he does on "Keep Me Around," a sweet little number about his post-mortem wishes ("Just lean me there on the back porch where I can feel the breeze") that shuffles along nicely with mandolin, banjo and behind-the-beat drumming. - Rolling Stone