by Marisa BrownNow that he has his own studio and label, Joseph Arthur must feel a lot of freedom when it comes to recording material, and this newfound liberation is most certainly evidenced on Let's Just Be, his second release on Lonely Astronaut. The album has the feel of an improvisational session, as if Arthur called up his band late one night, asked them to bring their instruments, showed them the sketches of 16 songs he'd been working on, and then told them to play (the occasional spoken direction of "then we go into a verse" only helps this theory along). Now, Arthur is a talented enough writer that Let's Just Be doesn't exactly end in disaster, but there's an air of sloppy experimentation, of demos and B-sides and other things that probably won't interest more than the heartiest fan. That's not to say that there aren't some worthwhile tracks here -- the sad and lovely "Take Me Home," the poetic "Chicago" -- but unfortunately, these a...