Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Poetic thought can come from anywhere, it just takes the right circumstances for it to be seen and appreciated for the beauty and the scars that it contains.
For scars are what makes poetry believable, intense and bound to the author, a rose may well just smell as sweet but if it hasn’t been plucked forcibly from the ground or snipped at the hem of the bush can it truly represent all the anguish it which a teenage heart wishes to install into the meaning of presenting it to their love.
The Unknowable Next: Spoken Words by Sheila K. Cameron is that poetry which holds onto that rose with honour and doesn’t mind that the thorns have not been taken off and discarded. In those thorns holds a truth of poetry, that it must hurt, that it must be spoken of and never ignored; if you dare remove the thorn, then surely you dilute the love and the thought in your mind.
Sheila K. Cameron’s music has been sensational to relive as she has been reissued her songs over the course of several albums, now the spoken word side of her occupation takes centre stage and with it, the rose of poetic demands glows as it has been obviously looked after with a gentle sense of care and the caress of a woman who understands the thorn as well as the petal and the scent.
A double album is always a very special moment, it offers continuality, it suggests thought and making sure that the words are always put into context. If offering a poetic voice there is nothing worse that floating several pieces and not allowing the book to be seen.
The nine sections of the two discs is spread beautifully over 140 minutes and contains the scars and the realism that makes such work not only powerful but contains the sentiment of reason that allowing yourself to hear someone’s natural voice, only makes you immerse yourself happily in their world.
It is impossible to listen to The Unknowable Next: Spoken Words without thinking of the realm offered by the Welsh King of words Dylan Thomas; it is the emotion that always catches such heartbreak and industry at its peak. It takes wit and guile to pull off such words, short sentences maybe but ones that are honest, not dipped in the residue of regret for not writing them down.
A complete album of poetic words, of the scars of life which make up such generosity; it might be the unknowable next but it feels homely and the real reason why roses are offered.
Ian D. Hall