'You're Not A Ghost Anymore (Faith)' by Joseph Arthur

I recently reviewed for International Times Joseph Arthur's recent gig at West Hampstead Arts Club together with Melanie Gabriel and Gonzalo Carrera:

'Highlights from a stellar set included ‘No Weapon’, based on the freedom that is found through forgiveness – ‘faith is hard but the only solution in a world full of spiritual pollution’; ‘Nobody’s War’ – ‘Nobody here wants your war’ and ‘More money, more death, more greed, makes the children bleed’; as well as the raucous singing of a Ho’oponopono mantra together with the crowd during the encore – ‘I love you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, And thank you’.'

Today Arthur's latest album You're Not A Ghost Anymore (Faith), which he has been promoting through his latest tour, was released. The album is the latest in a stream of recent releases on secular labels that reference religion and engage with Christianity in particular. These include: Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Lux by Rosalía, Days of Ash and Easter Lily by U2, Holy Island by Sister Ray Davies, Sad and Beautiful World by Mavis Staples, Hallelujah! Don’t Let The Devil Fool Ya by Robert Finley, Troubled Horses by Martyn Joseph and the reissue of Fire Of God’s Love by Sister Irene O’Connor.

Paul Cashmere writes that:

'Arthur has announced You’re Not A Ghost Anymore, a sweeping new body of work conceived as a single narrative and revealed in three connected album movements titled Faith, Heart, and Fight. The first instalment, You’re Not A Ghost Anymore: Faith, will be released on Friday, April 2 via Arthur’s own Lonely Astronaut Records, marking his first new solo project since 2019’s Come Back World.

Rather than a conventional album cycle, Arthur has structured the project as a long-form arc written across six years, shaped by personal collapse, recovery and creative renewal. Each chapter reflects a state of being rather than a musical category, with Faith establishing the emotional and spiritual foundation of the wider work.

The album opens with I Wanna Know You, a stark and searching song that sets the tone for what follows. The track is accompanied by an official music video filmed by Arthur himself, captured in a single continuous take while travelling through Europe. The unplanned footage, centred around an image of Jesus Christ mounted on the back of a truck, became a visual extension of the song’s themes of attention, presence and chance encounter.

Arthur’s writing on Faith leans into spiritual inquiry without offering easy conclusions. Across twelve tracks including Hey Satan, Bear Your Own Cross, Thank You Is My Mantra and In The Shadow Of The Cross, he examines belief, doubt, endurance and responsibility with the unfiltered directness that has defined his career since the late 1990s.'

Arthur says:

'The 36-song album I’m releasing over the course of this year, You’re Not a Ghost Anymore, unfolds in three sections:
Faith.
Heart.
Fight.
I could have begun anywhere.
But for me the story starts with faith.
When you’re at the bottom of life, when things feel uncertain, faith is often the only thing left. Not as an ideology. Just as a quiet decision to keep going.
Heart and fight came after that.
This is a reflection on why I chose to begin there.
Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.'

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Joseph Arthur - Hey Satan.

International Times: Letting go of the hatred that poisons our world

My latest review for International Times is on Joseph Arthur's recent gig in London:

'Highlights from a stellar set included ‘No Weapon’, based on the freedom that is found through forgiveness – ‘faith is hard but the only solution in a world full of spiritual pollution’; ‘Nobody’s War’ – ‘Nobody here wants your war’ and ‘More money, more death, more greed, makes the children bleed’; as well as the raucous singing of a Ho’oponopono mantra together with the crowd during the encore – ‘I love you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, And thank you’.'

For more on Joseph Arthur see here.

My earlier pieces for IT are: an interview with the artist Alexander de Cadenet; an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a profile of singer-songwriter Bill Fay, plus reviews of: Threads of LIfe and Heart to Heart, U2's 'Days of Ash', Mumford and Sons' 'Prizefighter' and Moby's 'Future Quiet'; 'Collected Poems' by Kevin Crossley-Holland; 'Lux' by Rosalía; 'Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere'; 'Great Art Explained' by James Payne; 'Down River: In Search of David Ackles' by Mark Brend; 'Headwater' by Rev Simpkins; 'The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art' by Jonathan A. Anderson; 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, albums by Deacon Blue, Mumford and Sons, and Andrew Rumsey, also by Joy Oladokun and Michael Kiwanaku; 'Nolan's Africa' by Andrew Turley; Mavis Staples in concert at Union Chapel; T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone; Helaine Blumenfeld's 'Together' exhibition, 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller; 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt, the first Pissabed Prophet album; and 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

IT have also published several of my poems, including 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.

I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

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Joseph Arthur - In The Sun.

Joseph Arthur - You’re Not A Ghost Anymore: Faith

Great gig last night by Joseph Arthur at West Hampstead Arts Club, together with Melanie Gabriel and Gonzalo Carrera, which I am reviewing for International Times.

Paul Cashmere writes that: 

'Arthur has announced You’re Not A Ghost Anymore, a sweeping new body of work conceived as a single narrative and revealed in three connected album movements titled Faith, Heart, and Fight. The first instalment, You’re Not A Ghost Anymore: Faith, will be released on Friday, April 2 via Arthur’s own Lonely Astronaut Records, marking his first new solo project since 2019’s Come Back World.

Rather than a conventional album cycle, Arthur has structured the project as a long-form arc written across six years, shaped by personal collapse, recovery and creative renewal. Each chapter reflects a state of being rather than a musical category, with Faith establishing the emotional and spiritual foundation of the wider work.

The album opens with I Wanna Know You, a stark and searching song that sets the tone for what follows. The track is accompanied by an official music video filmed by Arthur himself, captured in a single continuous take while travelling through Europe. The unplanned footage, centred around an image of Jesus Christ mounted on the back of a truck, became a visual extension of the song’s themes of attention, presence and chance encounter.

Arthur’s writing on Faith leans into spiritual inquiry without offering easy conclusions. Across twelve tracks including Hey Satan, Bear Your Own Cross, Thank You Is My Mantra and In The Shadow Of The Cross, he examines belief, doubt, endurance and responsibility with the unfiltered directness that has defined his career since the late 1990s.'

Arthur says:

'The 36-song album I’m releasing over the course of this year, You’re Not a Ghost Anymore, unfolds in three sections:
Faith.
Heart.
Fight.
I could have begun anywhere.
But for me the story starts with faith.
When you’re at the bottom of life, when things feel uncertain, faith is often the only thing left. Not as an ideology. Just as a quiet decision to keep going.
Heart and fight came after that.
This is a reflection on why I chose to begin there.
Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.'

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Joseph Arthur - I Wanna Know You.