Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
One of Liverpool’s most endearing and enduring talents is a force of nature that resides in the humility of acceptance and vision, and to hear the music and imaginative insights of Neil Campbell as he offers his latest album, The Turnaround, to an audience well versed in his application, but who still find the beauty of surprise awaiting them with heartfelt adoration.
The composer and the player, a fulfilment of the harnessing energy at the will of the elemental originality that is focused on each form and collective gathering that the music requires, and whether on his own or in an ensemble, the pieces are brought together with precision and an attitude of dramatic peace and generosity.
Following on from the outstanding mini album The Smoky God, which was released in March 2024, The Turnaround is once again indicative of the prowess of the man, and in a way symbolises his own life as one who outwardly shows great empathy and calm in a world that surrounds us all with the charm of pressure and imbalance. The contemplative arrangements, the layering of atmosphere on identification is an allurement of the finest kind, and it is without doubt due to the personality and the insight that he draws upon which has created a sublime response to his latest musings.
From the moment that the opening track of The Wild Frontier catches the senses, the listener is transported to a place of security and compassion, a difficult, if not testing application for any musician to excel in, and yet as the album continues with Pollen, Beach Scene, the superb One Evening In Palermo, Roger Over And Out, and Tributaries, Neil Campbell shows with a sense of luxury a soul bursting with character and conscious, of being observant to the will of the music, of creating a universe within an essence of guitar performance.
The Turnaround is absolutely generous with its musical voice; it glides impeccably and with stirring drama and becomes by natural selection a resonating and dream like album in which to feel safe and sheltered from the excess of human negativity. Neil Campbell is not only an important figure in the world of the Liverpool guitar performance, but one to whom the listener can embrace musically with comfort.
Ian D. Hall