Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The desire to keep moving, to find a way to forever keep the feet itchy and the mind in a permanent yearning state may well be called wanderlust. For many thought it is more about a sense of freedom, the liberty to pick yourself up and move on to the next town and see how they do things there; for in giving in to wanderlust is one of the great and utter delights that is afforded humanity and one that should be celebrated with keen thought.
Jon Kenzie affords the sense of freedom gravitas, after all From Wanderlust is a feeling of rejoicing, of reinforcing the notion that to succeed is to have worked so damned hard that your feet have not had time to touch the floor; nothing comes easy in life, if it did would it be as memorable, or even stand out as a pinnacle of endeavour?
From Wanderlust takes the listener down a series of paths, of routes that are not meant to lead to a singular truth but to many different certainties. Truth is a perspective that only one person can see at a time, especially when the truth is held in closed hands but possible certainty holds greater valour, the promise of the unfulfilled option a more daring and potentially gratifying pause on the way to understanding. Jon Kenzie sings these possibilities with promise, he won’t show you the exact route but he will offer moments in which the sign posts won’t matter, where the map will be useless and the overall sensation will be that you perhaps have never felt more free.
Songs from the album that capture the point of the journey, the point of which is never to return as the same person that left, are those that sit in playful heaven, in splendid melancholy and each one fulfils a purpose of expression. From Winds of Approaching Night, If I Did Find, the wonderful Five More Years, Another Town and Clicking Needles, Jon Kenzie provides the narrative on your trip, it is one that will be remembered and thought of with fondness; to give in to wanderlust is to feel free and unchained, Jon Kenzie is the perfect companion to make sure the freedom retains its value.
Ian D. Hall