Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In the battle for your soul, it is not Devils and Gods that you have to concerned with trying to please or keeping out of the way; it is the Angels & Sirens who will have the first and last call on everything that you are as they endeavour with their own sense of majesty to first sample you, and then later seduce you into taking a side. It is a side that offers pitfalls, extremes highs and the kiss from either as they lure you, beckon you with riches and sensual passion and finally devour you, which makes the experience even more extreme, more tantalising and spine tingling than you might at first believe.
It is too Stevie Jones and the Wildfires that Angels & Sirens are reminded of their duty in the scheme of humanity’s affairs, to call out to the unsuspecting and the knowledgeable alike and equally in their sound, one enticing, one urging, it is then up to the shore tossed and Ulysses driven to choose a side and as each song is played from this Northamptonshire band, the decision becomes the epitome of the tangled web, which island of life, sex, love and underlying delicate acoustic natural feel which in turn battles with the rocks and hard blessed guitars.
Following up from the band’s much-admired 2016 debut album Stratigraphic Heart could be considered a tall ask, the looming rocks ready to strike out and the sense of the siren call one of falsehood and lost direction, and yet with Vassilis Damitriadis on guitar, Jake Patrick on drums, Bob Dabrowski on bass and with Autumn Dawn Leader, Janet Robin and Sean Clutterham all making wonderful and charged guest appearances, the 13 track album is in itself the hybrid sound of pleasure that is mixed between both angel and siren.
In tracks such as Neon Underground, 48 Of A Day, 1+1=3, Pointless Broken Records and I’ll Never Fall In Love Again all leaving their seared mark upon those that appeal and call out to the musical sailors as they approach their destiny, Stevie Jones and the Wildfires navigate the harsh waters and have found the beauty of an island paradise which becomes a bountiful harbour for them to perform from.
Embrace the Angels & Sirens, for they are the ones who send the message to the Gods that something beautiful is coming through.
Ian D. Hall