Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is to memory that we are able to see the prospect of hope in the distance; that even in the most damning of times we can imagine a moment after the damaging storm clouds have cleared in which the sound of a heart filled with courage takes a faultless foot on the stage and stands ready for the houselights to pick her out and for the music to captivate the audience in a way that hadn’t been felt in their souls for what could have been years.

To recognise that Light Is In The Horizon is to implore hope upon others, it speaks of a future, it adds illumination to what may be a period of mourning, it is the song that understands heartbreak but wishes to embrace the soul and offer a solution, whether temporary or as moments turn to lifetimes, the light seen on the horizon is there to aim for.

In the trail of the Vagabond and the Cavalier, Eddi Reader returns to the stage and the ears of fans and listeners alike and reveals a new set of unreleased songs in the entrancing Light Is In The Horizon.

That hero on the stage, the sound of reflection leading to the acceptance of being alive, it is right in front of you as Ms. Reader strikes a match and with a delicate but forthright style brings the candle to life, dispelling the shadows, and urging, cajoling the listener to keep taking stock, to keep walking towards the hope on the horizon.

Taken from her recording sessions for the previous two studio albums, this new offering is not by any means to be thought of as cast offs, remodelled and reimagined for the public, this is serious quality, tracks that stand out and place peace within the soul, this is music delivered with a sense of purity in the voice and hunger in the soul, and it superb.

Through moments and songs such as Mary Skeffington, Love Is Pleasure, I Dreamt I Dwell In Marble Halls, Beneath The Lights Of Home, April Blues, and I Thought It Was You, Eddie Reader caresses the fevered brow tempered by storm, misuse, and societal pressures, and leaves the patient listener filled with charm, with ease, and with love.

Light Is In The Horizon is yet another chapter in a long line of incredibly delightful albums and E.P.s by the talented singer songwriter; and proves if it ever needed to be so, that Eddi Reader knows the value of closeness, of being by the listener’s side, an extraordinary ability in which the light shines down her with absolute credibility.

Eddi Reader’s Light Is In The Horizon is out now and available via Reveal Records.

Ian D. Hall