Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The future is unknown, exciting, perhaps apprehensively provoking, filled with energy and concern in equal measure, and yet it is one that that should be grasped with both hands, for the past, in all its forms, has only served as an appetiser for the journey and fight to come.
The Life I Left Behind, we have to tell ourselves, is one that should remain in the past, viewed maybe through the respect afforded by rose tinted glasses, but also with maturity, with experience, for in growth the change we seek is one of responsibility, a life left behind is not forgotten, but it is also only a stepping stone to a more secure and fulfilling life.
Such a statement could be seen as sweeping, especially in the times we live in, the ache of what’s missing could be enough to send us making several attempts to recapture what might injure us, take us back several steps in personal growth, the life we left behind too close for comfort, to needy for its, and ours, own good.
For Liverpool’s Ben Burke, the life left behind is not one of regret, but instead is a hugely gorgeous single to which understands growth can be seen as undeniably daunting for some, but to which deny only leads to another place of darkness and universal quiet a whole lot quicker. To grow is to keep moving, to shy away from the depths revealed to you is to stand still, to slow walk back with your head half turned, unfocused and blurred. Ben Burke’s vision in his single is one of absolute clarity, lucidity and filled with pace and positivity.
The Life I Left Behind should spur you on, inspire, cajole, stimulate you to the point where regret is just a phase you once paused alongside, that life is all about looking forward; a song which is at its core is a stirring message of hope from the superb Ben Burke.
Ben Burke releases The Life I Left Behind on September 18th.
Ian D. Hall