Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * * *
Remember this date, February 2013. If you purchase, borrow, lend or acquire Robert Vincent’s debut album Life In Easy Steps, it will be one of the most accessible, life affirming pieces of music that you are ever likely to hear, certainly this year and perhaps for the rest of the decade.
Such music is of course subjective, it always boils down to how the musician presents their image and thoughts onto you, others will agree and most will probably argue till they are blue in the face. If an album can reach into even the stoniest and hard hearted of souls and make them even quiver slightly, whether through excitement or pained and real memories then the album and the artist has done their job.
Life In Easy Steps is the anti-instruction book, the element of real that is missed out in all the self-help books put together and 10 times more effective and beneficial than them all. It is the karmic kick up the back side that people need whilst still gently holding your hand and telling you that in the end, it will be alright if you follow your own heart and stay loyal to what you believe.
The album also hides something, its guitar country façade, so easily identifiable throughout the recording holds secrets that need listening to. The songs that easily bite and caress with the same effortlessness also have traces of David Gilmour woven between them, so much so that the lyrics could definitely be found on any of the Pink Floyd legend’s own solo albums.
Tracks such as Blue and Light of the Sky are comforting, Demons and Who are You to Say tantalising and irresistible and My Pill, which appeared earlier in Robert’s solo career, dramatic and incredible. As for the title track of the album, the wonderful Life In Easy Steps, Mr Vincent shows that there is no such thing, it is a long game with no comfortable answers. It is just a case of getting out there and making sure that you do your best.
Life In Easy Steps is extraordinary, a real and forceful attitude laid bare for all to hear. Magnificent!
Ian D. Hall