Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a hole, a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle in Liverpool, one that stands out alongside her talented fellow Norwegian countrywomen, including the superb Kaya Herstad Carney, as they influenced and fashioned Liverpool for so long but have made their way to tickle the heart and seduce the soul of populaces of other towns and cities, and in some cases far away continents; this hole, this tear in the fabric of Liverpool has been greatly noticed and whilst the superb voice of Grethe Borsum has been missing from the day to day life of the city, at least thanks to the power of the internet, it is still possible to find that her music is still entrancing.

Get Her, once a phrase that may have been a sign of ridicule in the not so enlightened times following World War Two, an expression that signalled distaste and derision and yet in the absolute charms, wits and strength afforded by the band, is such that it sits rightly as a profusion of cool, of passion and an indication that the music should be admired and perhaps no more so in the single Flowerbed.

Flowerbed is strength, a renewal of a period in which Grethe Borsum made venues such as Zanzibar her own for the night, her battle cry, akin to the fortitude sought out and expressed by Cleopatra or Bodicia but used not to devastate armies but people’s hearts. It is the same strength of purpose, of nature, that allows a rose to rise and flourish in a bed or an oak tree to become the symbol of nation.

Whilst Grethe Borsum is certainly missed around Liverpool, her band ease their words, their imagery and their style back into the hole that was left and the thin gossamer wedge of intrigue is revealed, the petals begin bloom and once more Ger Her is an instruction, of intent to understand that whilst some people leave the city they had a hand in influencing, their spirit never leaves.

Flowerbed is a fantastic single, a welcome in dark times to hear such beauty.

Ian D. Hall