Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Those Footsteps On The Broken Road that we hear beside us belong to the soul that wants to take our hand and accompany us to a place where love is not a crime or considered weak, where sunsets never fail to be beautiful, and each new dawn is one that holds mystery and adventure; the footsteps may be travelling a broken road, but the stride is conscious, the pace steady, and the company unbroken.
Is it possible to fall in love with a sound, if it comes from perception and illumination of human thought, inspiration, and dedication, then quite honestly you can. It is in that sound that audiences distinguish between a truth being whispered, and a deceit being screamed, that leads to love, and in Calum Gilligan’s latest album, the whisper is made all the sweeter for the sheer unfolding charisma of the sound that accompanies the voice.
Gentleness and being put at ease from an outside force are beyond the reach of some who use magnetism of spirit as they insist they have paved the road, when all they are doing is manipulating your footsteps so that they can be shown as caring when you avoid the cracks and the sinkholes. However, as the songs of Calum Gilligan weave themselves into the fabric of the day of the listener, what is felt is sincerity, the continued promise that the songs will do their upmost to never lead you from the path you sought, and should a crack appear, should an open pit suddenly emerge, so a bridge will be built across it.
So those bridges are made of forgiving but fierce foundations, and as melody and song merge so to tracks such as the lead single Winds A-Wailing, Bonny Child Unborn, The Best Things, Imagine Winter, Kozimnin Karasi, and Looking For A Stranger, all provide the footpaths of empathy and love to be utilised, to be employed as we confidently and purposely take steps to travel the broken road in style.
Special mention should be addressed, praised with honour to the two foreign language tracks on the album, Dudarai, and the aforementioned Kozimnin Karasi, a couple of songs that show the barrier of language is only how we interpret it, and that we should not be afraid of another’s mother’s tongue when it whispers a consumed love down our ears.
It is never in doubt just how inspiring Calum Gilligan is as a musician and a performer, but in Footsteps On The Broken Road the artist utterly excels himself, and it is with great aural pleasure to hear those footsteps beside us.
Calum Gilligan releases Footsteps On The Broken Road on April 14th.
Ian D. Hall