Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a special kind of confidence that cannot be ignored, to do would be unkind, to undermine a soul, and in the end only shows you up to be of a frivolous and undesirable nature. The complex relationship we have with confidence can be hindered by believing it is nothing more than arrogance, a disguise to be worn by those with nothing in their hearts but deception; however the truth is that honourable confidence is worth protecting, if it smiles and does all that it has said that it will, then confidence is the illumination that paves the way to enlightenment.

The confidence to bring out an album of sheer class must also not be dismissed, the listener after all is only privy to the end result, not the journey but if it makes them announce after listening to the recording that Because I’m A Giant I applaud how the songs make me feel, then the confidence and ovation is fully deserved.

For Elijah James and The Nightmares, Because I’m A Giant is more than just a series of songs that capture the essence of Liverpool’s place as the productive music centre of the nation’s heartbeat, it also alludes to a spirit that the city rarely flexes its mighty muscles upon, the sense of the Progressive, the peering through the imagery that has the story attached in full but also that can be pieced together as one.

In Elijah James there is a craftsman at work, one that sits comfortably with his peers, but also can be found in the ideal of those that came before, the measure of time resonating through the album and with the knowledge of consequence by its side. It takes a giant to understand this, it takes humility to supply it to the audience, and as songs such as the single I Hate It Here, But You Are Here, And I Love You, Down, Movie In Your Eyes, Most Unwelcome Encounter and Misery And Me play out, what is understood is that Elijah James is that giant, he and the superb musicians around him are seismic in their observation and their confidence.

A glorious album, one of fearsome proportion, not unexpected but still an absolute delight.

Ian D. Hall