Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We surely must look to the women and men to whom light shines on for All The Seasons, for in them we witness our own possible reflections, and to misquote Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons, “Their taste in the pursuit of truth is excellent, it exactly coincides with my own!”
This is not the cry of the personal, but a phrase that delves into the heart of our psyche, we seek out those who speak the same ideals, interests and goals as ourselves, and then when we find ourselves staring into the void of creative hope, we shift our parameters, we constrain our emotional limits in the anticipation that we find someone close to the mark in which we can team up with, to spill our troubles, regrets and addictions to.
Dead Shed Jokers return to the fore with their third album, All The Seasons, and they are perfectly placed to aid the reconciliation between heart and soul, the terms and conditions that we apply to ourselves as we focus on what binds us, rather than what tears us apart.
The days that make up All The Seasons are ours for the taking, they scream out in wild, feral, magnetic beauty, absorbing the hours between and filling the minutes with concentrated rawness of spirit; whether in the songs Phantom Pains, the dangers inherent that make up Dreams of North Korea, Feel Today, You’re A Thief, Spanner In The Works or Enough Is As Good As A Feast, what is brutally clear is that Hywel Davies, Nicky Bryant, Kristian Evans, Christopher Metters and Sean Mahoney have poured their heart into this recording; they may be metaphorically bleeding, their energy having pounded the real, but they remain amazingly undaunted, ready to fight again.
You might expect an album that was recorded in just five days to be lacking detail, if not emotional punch, the sense of the raw being overwhelming and lacking cohesion; nothing could be further from the truth, All The Seasons encompasses compassion, it revels in the rage, it is the personification of getting your hands dirty and delivering what was always promised, without compromise, but also with honour.
Immediate and rewarding, All The Seasons is Dead Shed Jokers tour de force.
Dead Shed Jokers release All The Seasons on September 6th.
Ian D. Hall