Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is not just for the preserve of storytellers, to have imagination is a gift that we all should aspire to, if not master, then at least nurture; to bring forth characters from a full pen and make them come alive, allow the scenario of the street to infuse them with a pulse and belief – for by doing so, by painting pictures with words, music, and melody, we can inspire a new world to take shape around us, a world of possibilities that might lead us to the one street, the one road where broken dreams are made whole again.
Even in a loose concept album, character is important, and for some it is a step too far, they either take the scenario and underplay it, the links between songs almost tenuous, fragile, gossamer-like as thin webs stretch out and become lost in both translation and in the artist’s mind, or they delve too deep, the scenario overloaded with metaphor, overscored with a drama that mocks the original idea.
The concept album is a treasure trove waiting to be unveiled, a mystery of perception, of unique perspective of understanding, and one in the hands of an artist such as Michael McDermott, is to be gratefully received and scrutinised with joy and feeling.
In Michael McDermott’s latest album, St. Paul’s Boulevard, the sense of equilibrium, of balance, is to be found honourably and with full intentions of pulling on the heartstrings and emotions of the listener. Such a move arguably normally only catches fire in the art of the progressive, but there is more to any concept than the signature tunes that caught the imaginations of a collective Generation X disenfranchised by life and the fears of an age that was ready to disavow any chance of growth or meaning.
However, in St. Paul’s Boulevard produces its own scale of beauty, the loose concept bound by a flavour of intrigue, of drama, and elegance, and as tracks such as Our Little Secret, The Arsonist, Sick Of This Town, Marlowe, Dead By Dawn, and All That We Have Lost lead with sincerity the listener to the next chapter of musical unveiling, so Michael McDermott builds a town of imaginative characters, of their lives, their conceits, their inner turmoil and strengths with a fine and expensively divined pen.
The place where our hearts were broken, the street where we found a sense of healing, all is fair in the art of the concept album, and one in which Michael McDermott has honed with sheer honesty and craft in a recording that captures the story-tellers range and groove with astonishing beauty.
Michael McDermott releases St. Paul’s Boulevard on July 1st via Pauper Sky Records.
Ian D. Hall