Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Although the first words out of your mouth when the album finishes might well be the breathless exclamation of wow, or perhaps something more akin to anything considered vaguely Anglo-Saxon, it really shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that Rachael Wright and The Good Sons new album Dig is nothing short of fantastic. It is roller coaster of supreme sound, unblemished and rigorous to the point that the listener is not just gasping for breath as if supremely exhausted by the effect but revelling in its mastery. A collection of songs that leave you consumed and overjoyed is a rare feat but Dig achieves it in spades.

There is something of the Tori Amos in Rachael Wright, the ability to weave a spell of sensuality and the over-riding dramatic in her story telling and in the music that her and Jamie Brewster, Michael Oates and Steve Pilgrim combine to frame this dalliance with sensory allusion, with an out and out heart inducing rush, is magical, a trip that starts with the crash drums and the anger of angry bestial guitar and gives its soul over in some sort of Faustian pact to maintain its life cycle.

Black Heart kicks off the album appropriately; the imagery and suggestion to women’s right and the struggle they have faced in the face of insane and pointless opposition is united with the thought of a wall of women linking arms and facing down the barrel of misogynistic nonsense. Brutal and incredibly good, it is an opener in the vein of Crucify or Past the Mission and one that sets the scene for an album that reaches out to the collective conscious and expects to be listened to, not with sweet promises of obedience but with riotous indignation of being told what to think and how to act.

Throughout the album, the group of musicians play with form so well, the near barbarism of the sound enhancing tracks such as Drive, the impossibly brilliant Workshy, the elegance of words in Man of the House and Honorata to the point where it is not just another album that sits amongst the very best of the year so far but it is a collection of stories designed to inflame passion, to take the listener to a point where anger can sit alongside hope in mutual respect. A magnificent album, first rate and one to play over and over again until Rachael Wright’s message hammers home.

Dig is available to purchase from News From Nowhere on Bold Street or from http://rachaelwright.bandcamp.com

Ian D. Hall