There is a fire burning within Martyn Joseph, a passion and a simmering anger that has not dimmed even slightly during a career spanning over twenty years. It sits alongside a captivating ability to observe life and capture both its light and dark sides within his music.
Martyn Joseph does not just write songs. He pours his heart and soul into them whilst confronting some subjects that are all too easy for us to turn a blind eye to. His latest album Evolved (Pipe Records, October 27, 2008) sees Martyn re-visiting fifteen of these songs, injecting a freshness and added maturity into them in the process.
It is little surprise that the album is presented in such a captivating way. Designed by Canadian Juno Award-winning artist Michael Wrycraft, it has a separate flash card thoughtfully presented for every song on the album. It is quite simply an object of art.
Martyn is from Cardiff, in South Wales, and learned his craft playing the local pubs and clubs. It was a tough grounding and one he put to good use. He learned well and by the early '90s he had achieved five top 50 records. His observations on life can be poignant and heartrending, challenging or uplifting. Life can look very different after seeing him perform.
Those wanting a new Martyn Joseph album may well be initially disappointed by the fact that Evolved sees him re-visiting his best known songs. There is no need for such thoughts. Martyn has somehow breathed new life into them, whilst bringing them up to the present. By doing so he makes us realise that the issues raised are, sadly, as relevant today as when he originally wrote them.
Martyn explains, "The idea behind this album was to redress the disparity between past recordings that bore little resemblance to where those songs are today. We record songs too early, we don’t know them well enough and jump in too soon."
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