Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

You cannot have it all, at least not without sacrificing a part of your soul that depends on balance, but what you can hold in your hands is a sense of completeness, an appreciation that your life is not confined to a single ability but can play host a whole host of talent that can unfold and reveal every emotion, every feeling, you ever wanted to relay to the world.

To have it all can be ruinous, but to live in the colourful existence but be aware of the Grey areas of love is that balance, and it is one to whom Kiefer Sutherland, a man to whom has not only followed his father’s illustrious footsteps, but carved his own name into the actor’s fellowship with a string of incredible films dating back more than 40 years, has managed with a sense of unrelenting dynamic as he releases his fourth album in a decade; almost with untethered cool and with a huge amount of flair.

Grey follows on from the first three albums, Down In A Hole, Reckless & Me, and Bloor Street, with a full blown exclamation of intelligent guitars and riffs that underline the scope of ingenuity at hand, and with a taste of nights in downtown bars surrounded by an army of hearts that take the lyrics to their beds and make love with a passion to those they love, and often despair but whom are tied to by a line, a string of connections that are complicated and endowed with history.

Produced by the respected Ethan Johns, Grey melds tracks such as American Farmer, Goodbye California, Cruel World, Third Times The Charm, the deeply personal The Bottle Let Me Down, and the finale of the album Rage In Me, with value and a great sense of Time, and should it be so, in a kind of confession, in unburdening the soul and its weight in an affirmation of commitment to the cause.

Balance is everything, you cannot have it all without the soul being overwhelmed and perhaps corrupted by power, but you can reveal the secrets, the heartaches, the hopes, fears, and desires with a flourish and keep yourself intact, and in Grey all those passions and hungers are on show, and with a devastating groove in tow.

Ian D. Hall