Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The idea of Utopia is based upon equality, a brotherhood which is unbreakable and insurmountable, a breath in which all come to together as one and the equilibrium cannot be challenged.

The Spirit Level, the machine on which all sturdy foundations are built, the simplest but most invaluable of all tools reflects that harmony of which Utopia is based. If the bubble, the spirit in the level is even just a fraction out it can lead to disaster. After all ethanol may produce a straight line in which life must be balanced but it can also be a volatile mixture placed in the wrong hands.

For Chris Young, also known as Quills, The Spirit Level is placed firmly in the hands of someone who understands how delicate balance can be, how precarious the ideas of Utopia and Dystopia can seem and how it requires both states of mind in which to survive and flourish. Utopia can never be achieved, the perfect too far removed from Humanity’s intentions, for life to ever really to be in balance with the world without the darkness that Dystopia can bring.

Quills recognises this in his album and the songs reflect the counterbalance needed in which to make a set of songs stand out. The satisfaction of building something from the ground up, from digging deep into the psyche and laying the foundations so smooth, so clean that everything else that follows can only be enjoyed and admired by those that pass by and linger for the longest time.

Tracks such as Let’s Start A War, The Waiting Room, the natural binding fibres of Cocaine Nights and final delivery of the terrific fundamental elements of In Pieces/A Surgeon’s View and I’m No Good For My Health are there to remind that life is not meant to be euphoric but it is meant to be lived and taken for what it is, a gift, a proposition to be the best that you can be and not to slip into the realms of bitterness and regret for not having made any goals.

For Quills, for Chris Young, strength and determined character go hand in hand and The Spirit Level is a testament to that conviction, compelling and praiseworthy; a moment in Time in which to feel satisfaction.

Ian D. Hall