Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We all succumb to a kind of complacency when we are on top of the world, when we feel as though the moment of heightened enjoyment will last forever, it is natural, it is fleeting, and we cannot help ourselves forever seeking out the thrill of it. For in that rush that complacency provides, we forget the truth of its opposite nature, we forget that hope, that tireless courage and faith in the human spirit provides a far greater drive to see us take on the world than the dream of personal, permanent utopia.

I’m Not Giving Up, even when the odds are stacked against you, when it seems the world is conspiring to drag you down even in the moment of a personal triumph or realisation of a dream, is the reveal of spirit, it is the point where rebellion meets revolution, and by this spoken statement to the wind, which catches the ears of those in place to quake in their boots, so the drive to succeed takes on a different meaning.

It is in such a song, a moment of bliss in which IndyAnna Baby carries the tune with a sweeping full regard for their truth, that I’m Not Giving Up becomes a clarion call, a sound of momentum which has gentleness sewn through its soul and which resonates in its armour like a badge of honour.

You would expect no less an interpretation from someone with insight and a mind full of ideas waiting to be explored, and in IndyAnna Baby, that force that once carried them to performing at Liverpool’s Royal Court, which offered a timeless appeal in and around the clubs and venues of the city of their birth, has now become a groove in which their adopted home of Australia offers back to the world with open, sincere arms.

A refrain of joy, of expectancy, of an artist looking into the soul of their past, and seeing their future blossom before their eyes, I’m Not Giving Up is an expression of defiance delivered by warm, caring hands, and one that leads the listener to the ultimate place in which safety is paramount, that of hope.

Ian D. Hall