Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To live an Honest Life is one that surely is the advantageous of all, it might not win you plaudits and people might try their damndest to take advantage of you but an Honest Life is and will always be one of purity, heartbreak and outstanding cool. Like an angel who manages to find she is the most sincere in all of creation, the urge to sing and take the lyrical responsibility for ensuring everybody is content is understandable.

For Courtney Marie Andrews that responsibility is to be heard throughout her album Honest Life, it is dependable and full of trust, not once does the listener pause the music and find themselves not believing in the words of the musician; it is almost a testimony, the outstretched hand affirming in court that the words are conscientious and full of meaning. Life is full enough of other people’s drama, to be honest is a virtue and if you can lay your soul bare for others to care for you or rip the heart apart then you have succeeded in being honourable.

It takes fortitude to leave home early in life but when the urge to go beyond the shoreline of comfort and spread even the most tiniest of wings, then that fortitude builds like a castle, the strength is impressive, the vocal ramparts untouchable and throughout the entire album there is a touch of secure, the confident, holding court with the once vulnerable.

In songs such as Rookie Dreaming, Table For One, Put The Fire Out and How Quickly Your Heart Mends, Ms. Andrews holds down the weight of expectation for one who has honed her style and subtlety of creation and gives it the sense of the undefeated, the angel in the ring who has taken all comers and stood balanced with indomitable spirit. The songs are captured by the beautiful voice, one not raised in harsh conditions but to whom each note is sacred and satisfying.

A terrific album, one of longing and fulfilment, Honest Life is to be striven for.

Ian D. Hall