Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is not that we feel fear as a response to the moment we are confronted by the creatures that inhabit the darkness but that we shall find the fear is the greatest weapon we have in arsenal to combat and disarm the demons. It is in resolution to be greater than we are that we seek out the challenge instead of sheltering behind a wall, closed off, lacking in hope and valour, for once we remember who is watching us, we understand how courage works.

It takes courage to open your heart, anybody can feel the burden of fear but it is in the two fingers up to the world that sees our own place in life assured, and one that can dealt out as if serenading a princess high upon a balcony, proof that a voice that is sweet enough to capture the heart of the listener despite the intention of their actions, will always win through because they have that rare quality inside of them of being able to communicate with all, from the maid who cleans the Palace of Versailles to the person who struck good fortune by inheriting a Rolls Royce but no garage to put it in

Versailles, perhaps a short-hand signifying pomp, circumstance and the once palace of finery, but within the hands of Cary Balsano, it has greater meaning, a deeper significance. The musician may talk of fears that hound us but it to the words of the immortal Robert Louis Stevenson that the meaning becomes clear, “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others”, it is courage that keeps art and its deliverers. Away from pomp, turning away from elevated heights, it is only fear that holds us back and one that quite rightly this devastatingly artistic soul captures with an address to all who readily listen.

A wonderfully adept single, Cary Balsano’s Versailles is a palace fit for all who wish to shed their fears but to also own them so they might inspire others to sing songs against any sense of dread that befalls them.

Ian D. Hall