GutterPutter

arthur and no one else is the musical project of the eponymous Arthur Elliot; he is a London-born singer-songwriter who has been making music since he’s 18. That’s three years ago when he started off his discography and it’s already heading its way towards the prolific end. At the time of writing, he has already released a total of 45 in total which includes eight short albums with Relapse being his debut. His works are of an indie folk rock combo with a clear bedroom style of production, its more amateurish mixes adding to the appeal rather than taking it away. 

Racing Games came about right at the beginning of this month. It clocks in at only 22 minutes which means that there isn’t a whole load of room for more adventurous song structures. However, that is easily made up for through its brevity. Its broad themes generally include loneliness, self-loathing, general angst that doesn’t reach the same level of melodrama as emo itself. It also is one of those albums where the best possible genre to describe it fully is either one of indie rock or bedroom pop not because it keeps itself simple. But because it’s colourful in its influences like Modest Mouse.

Take a look at the intro in ‘Junior (Part 1 & 2)’ which consists of two choruses – an initial reassurance of support and then the implicit horror that the titular Junior had moved on to commit crimes. Note the willing shift in style from softer slowcore to the Car Seat Headrest-esque post-punk revival riff between the two parts to show the change in mood as if it creates an abstract narrative. It’s not to say that the record is a clear concept album; it should instead signal the clear interest in using the influencing genre to dictate the mood of the track. This emerges notably in ‘Excuses’ where the simple acoustic guitar strums collides with the echoes of the electric guitar notes which creates the dissonance much like the focus on being neglected by a friend. Another example is ‘Confess’ with its instrumental interlude to leave the hollow feeling of cutting ties with a toxic friend before an imminent pad to the left with the last few guitar strums.

At times, the noviceness props up with arthur and no one else’s playing. Usually the more ramshackle kind of playing wouldn’t dampen the listening experience and it could in fact aid it if it compliments the subjects of the music (case in point, the Mountain Goats). Racing Games didn’t quite enjoy carrying the atmosphere that befits it. ‘Gone’ takes on a slacker rock focus with the distortion being at its most apparent. The short duration helps to mask the issue, but you can start to feel how inflexible in its expression the technical aspect can be once you notice the clear three-chord focus. It sticks out more in the sole instrumental track in ‘Junior (Part 3)’ where the guitar playing lacks the free-flowing aspect to call back to the beginning. Otherwise, the two consequent songs in ‘Nothing’ and ‘Nothing (Part 2)’, in spite of their linear lyricism, feel uptight in their structures without any serious avenue to make for a noticeable flip. 

The biggest strength that ties the album all together lies in its production. Up to now, arthur and no one else has shown a clear vision in wanting to make his music thunder. The exploration of the themes are nuanced with respect towards the subject matter and the music takes on different influences to accentuate how the listener should feel about each track. It does however suffer from a more amateurish kind of instrumental playing which limits the direction of which to convey the specific parts of the theme (if that makes sense). To make up for it, more elaborate use of layering, reverbs, and even mixing have been used to add character to the tracks. Take note as one example the swaying guitar notes that’s seemingly bowed in ‘’Picture of Innocence (Part 1 & 2)’ to encapsulate the fleeting nostalgia as its reverbs become more apparent. Or the natural ambience in the background that sounds like cars passing by in ‘Tourniquet’. The outro in ‘Kicked Out / Rain’ builds up in the start with its volume with intertwining guitars before cutting off in the end with synths to capture the newfound dread of loneliness.

Racing Games is one of those albums that are good at what it does because of the creative ingenuity of its artist. It clearly has a kind of rust to its style which means that it might not always land straight at its feet and its structure, given the short song lengths, are limited. However, the homemade production helps give it more texture to make itself a more pleasant listen and it meshes well with the serious subject matters. You may well root for Arthur himself to hone his skills in the future so that he could then make better and more diverse songs in the future with more varied structures and more diverse ways to play the instrument. This might not be a masterpiece, but it doesn’t need to be and the least it could be is to be something that’s worthwhile for a handful of fans to listen to. In other words, feel free to give this a short listen.

3.6/5