Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Flirting with the American way can leave one tantalisingly close to feeling somewhat euphoric, it can leave the listener craving for more of the individual in a country that sometimes doesn’t recognise the need for the personal thought; a country of vast beauty and outstanding people, often ground down by the weight of expectation that hits home with every artist that sees others falling through the cracks and disappearing from view, from life.
It is in the flirtation that Andrea Stray helps the listener follow a true path of light, of the haunting atmospheric mystery in which mood may vary but the tempo is lovingly held out as an example of what can be realised when passion is held in high regard. It is the sound that Into Blue was made for and one that makes the five strong track E.P. alluring and full of pure subtle, yet passionate, movement.
If ever you have felt love, not just the eagle-eyed chance of lust, but pure love, the kind in which to save someone’s life you would not hesitate to walk through Hell whilst wearing nothing but a smile for the natives, then Into Blue plays deeply on the feelings that register and stir within.
Love, it is the biggest mystery and tongue twister possible and yet so many look at it the wrong way, love is not about what many think it is, love is doing what you don’t want to do but doing it anyway, attraction for the image but love is the reality and Andrea Stray perfectly showcases the biggest contributing factor of all for that love, the fear and beguilement of desolation; each song a relative of the possibility of the empty and the anguish.
In the song Forgive and Forget, the passion is the wave but the love has become the sweeping motion of the tidal storm, it catches you unawares and feeds the listener directly into the frame of mood reserved for one that knows a game of one upmanship has been taking place and you are caught in the middle of the final breaching of the walls that separate emotion from anger.
The E.P. is beautiful, resonating and surprisingly not coy at all to revel in the window it has opened, the sense of profound statements being issued in the songs You’re the Kind and Don’t’ Cry are heart breaking but also like a tale of lost treasure so close to home that you cannot but help investigate further.
A fantastic and brutally honest set of songs, Into Blue is the flirtation with America everybody deserves and wants.
Ian D. Hall