Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
We are urged to ride the punches doled out by life, gas-lighters, and psychopaths alike out as a mark of growth, of tolerance, that turning the other cheek is a noble expression of understanding, but sometimes what is frustratingly endured only leads to us being beaten Black And Blue, that the bruises of the experience never truly disappear, they just fade until we are only reminded of them when we next receive a knock on the same spot and despite the bandages we place upon them, the prayers and sympathies alike, it is inevitable that we will always find those bruises catching us unawares, that they are there as a permanent reminder of what we endured.
Loss is never easy, but it is how we deal with it that marks time with honour, for by commemorating that which caused you to grieve, by putting the resentment, the fear, the anger, the love that cascades, into a moment of time, you will have allowed the grief to be immortal, you make it mean something, the act of tangibility is given a place in your soul and despite everything, will place a moment of love for every hurt felt.
David Neville King’s first of two back-to-back singles, Black And Blue, sees reflection and humility merge together in a sweet embrace of loving memory and how even melancholy and apparent internal despair can shake the tree enough so that it allows streams of light through its tender branches and still provide the cover and protection once felt by another’s loving arms.
The song is beautiful, as all memories that we hold dear should be, and whilst the subject matter is raw, whilst it still, and always will, hold a distinctive feel to it, by placing the emotion out into the open, the listener will gain understanding of its place in the live set and when they hear it on their stereos.
Black And Blue is for David Neville King and the listener a shared moment, for we all have that moment in life where we have something to say but no longer have the one person to whom it will matter the most: beautiful, sad, and deeply personal, it takes courage to share pain, it takes someone as auspicious as David Neville King to do it with such belief and honour.
David Neville King’s Black And Blue is released on March 25th. David Neville King has agreed to donate any money earned from this song to the Macmillan Charity for the great work and support they did for his mother.
Ian D. Hall