Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
To be masters of our own destiny is the ultimate goal of the vast majority who place their feet upon this Earth, few will attain such lofty precision, but we must seek that moment where it all seems possible whilst holding onto the notion that rather than being dominant in our actions and thoughts, we are the counter in someone else’s Part Of The Game.
Whilst we rightly refuse to believe anything good can come from such an act of human puppetry, we must acknowledge that for the shortest while it is perhaps the measure of calm we require, it offers us the opportunity to remember what is important, what is a truth within the game, that we must be the one who at the end might be able to change the outcome for others for the better by exploiting those at the top and holding them to account for the way they often rolled with loaded dice.
April Moon’s new and vibrant single, Part Of The Game, is such an embodiment of that ethos that the Canadian pair who have made Liverpool their home are arguably the artists who could have seen the game in such a manner; not out to destroy, not urging others to embrace it, but by revealing its dichotomy of spirit. The machine behind the velvet curtain that we think is being operated by the small man in the garish waistcoat, is actually just a projection of ourselves.
In the midst of the upbeat but gently serene we are served our reminders that being part of the game means we can still throw a double six or always landing on the one square that we own or that pleasure of finding free parking on the journey, and that sense of freedom that is encapsulated by the pair’s more Americana/Folk feel on the track.
It is fair to say that the pair’s openminded approach to music is what gives them such a wide and unhindered appeal, a fierce cool which makes this new single one of approachable beauty.
Play the game, take notes, observe fully even when not directly involved, for in the roll you have, you can bring down the trap which jails the fraudsters and the imposters whose cheating you can expose.
Ian D. Hall