Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Love is complicated, if only it were a flawless, if only it was not so fragile, if it were robust and able to heal rather than fracture so easily when the slightest pressure was applied; if only love was tolerant, if it did more than leave you vulnerable and elated at the same time…but then we would have no need for Love Songs, we would have no need for the melancholia, we would have no need for sentimental beauty, the passion of regret, the joy of reconnection.
Bella Hardy does not allow Time to fall away from her grasp so easily, and in her 10th solo recording, Love Songs, that sense of fearlessness, of being able to place down in words and music the emotions of an age which has lived through demonstrably difficult moments and expressions in which Time has been found to be, if not on her side, then malleable enough for belief to be confidently shown and one that reaches out to be admired.
The combination of folk songs and her own compositions is the remedy to the ill of Time, the strident faith that even in the midst of a global desecration there is always hope, and love is the point, the epicentre, the complete trust in the future that keeps us going, and which urges us, gives us the drive to keep focus and persevering nature within to create in the midst of chaos.
Recorded in just three days, Love Songs is an unveiling of nature and the natural, of understanding the completeness of her message before setting down and using valuable time in an act that defies tinkering; short, sweet, and to the point, that is the generosity of Bella Hardy’s insight and performance.
Across tracks such as the album opener Summer Daylight Winter Darkness, My Johnny Was A Shoemaker, The Navigator’s Bride, Greenwood Laddie, Silverlight and the finale of Loving Hannah, the sensitivity of the lyrics and the music capture love in in one of its purest and significant essences, that of forgiveness, of mercy, the compassion of an age which we have got to regain.
Bella Hardy’s Love Songs is a pursuit of acceptance fulfilled, Time honoured, full of introspection and belonging. Love Songs, after all, are what keep our hearts beating.
Ian D. Hall