Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Not everyone has the novel inside of them. For many, life’s routine is such that a moment out of the ordinary is enough to create and weave a story that they can dine out on for a while with friends, an instant in the sun in which their life holds meaning beyond the grey and the beige to which they join others in producing Short Stories that build into a larger collection, published, printed, and the spotlight of existence on them for enough time for it to be remarkable.
Like all good short stories, the meaning has to have immediate punch, it has to enter the world with a burst of the unimaginable crafted and seized upon and leave the senses understanding more of the author’s intent than arguably a seasoned weighty tome can revel within. For like poetry, the short story offers with glee riddles and measures in quick succession, it openly dares you to find the hidden clues and evidence of the written word and its truth in a way that makes the tale longer and edifying than you believed.
Sean Taylor, already a celebrated troubadour, takes on the mantle of showcasing the tales of human brief encounters with a sound of quality that is always expected, but which in Short Stories is so compelling, haunting to the very bones of belief, and performed with abundant charm and skill, that each finely delivered note and expression is given a life of its own.
Across tracks such as the opener Happy Days, the perfected tones of Wildflower, Mona Lisa, Gravestones, Sweet Maria, and Snowdonia, Sean Taylor, along with sparkling guest musicianship from Paulina Szczepaniak, Justin Caroll, Joe Harvey Whyte, Mike Seal and Eric Lounsbury, and a daringly sublime piece of producing from Ben Walker brings to life the extraordinary moments in which life becomes more than just a poem, more than just a stanza sweated over and swatted into the bin of life several times, it becomes the building blocks of the complete narrative.
A moment in the sun which fiercely explores the joy in creating the spark of illumination which will resonate with others as they recognise their own lives within the meaningful structure of the narrative. For life is not one long adventure, it is a series of tales joined and stitched together by the overcoming of adversity. A truly wonderful experience to behold.
Sean Taylor releases Short Stories on July 14th.
Ian D. Hall