Aaron Skiles, Wreckage From The Fire. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The moment you can praise another artist for a sculpture, for a composition, for any type of artistic endeavour you have brought to life, you shed ego, you take on an altogether different role, one that captures the soul arguably with greater depth than when you take the plaudits for yourself; shedding ego, is not about letting go of your pride or your work, but acknowledging that others have played a part, have assisted have influenced, have given you the freedom to be something more than just an ordinary Joe striking out, you are in fact the epitome of being human.

Bourbon Therapy’s Aaron Skiles exemplifies this feeling of greatness in his latest album, Wreckage From The Fire; an album that comes together with style and abundance through the collaboration of the musicians involved, and with the sincerity of thanks that is placed at the door of Drive-By Truckers Matt Patton.

The chance to make what is perhaps awkwardly known as a solo album belies the truth of the mechanism involved, only a rare performer can do all they set out to do with no help required, and even then the machinery of human interaction necessitates assistance in the form of purchase, of selling the idea to others so they might feel the beauty imagined, and it is to the enormous praise and acknowledgment of the process and combined song writing that Matt Patton brings to the adventure, as well as the intensity added by Jay Gonzalez, Taylor Hollingsworth, A.J. Haynes, and Bronson Tew that the album is one of absolute pleasure.

Across tracks such as the opener Quarendream, A Triumph Of Three Chords, Love And Guilt, Be On My Own, and Sliver, Aaron Skiles doesn’t just save what is important from the conflagration of the last couple of years, the wreckage and spoil that has come across us all, affected us in ways we never thought possible, but comes away, burnt perhaps, but as strong as anything you are likely to find; that wreckage is in actual fact an inferno of beauty captured by a musician willing to share the spotlight, urging the response from the listener and the audience to do the same; to acknowledge that we are not alone.

An album of supreme emotions and the demand of continual existence; Wreckage From The Fire is a bonfire of the vanity and one that Aaron Skiles is ready to strike the match and watch ego turn to smoke, to observe the rage of beauty lights up the sky.

Aaron Skiles releases Wreckage From The Fire on April 22nd.

Ian D. Hall