Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We fear that which holds our shape but not our image when we are younger; even in adulthood we perhaps feel an unnerving comfort when we stand underneath a streetlight or pass by the reflected light of the moon above us, for in those Shadows there is a weightless buoyancy, a tether, not to Earth but to a realm where the rules are inverted, where life is given a different edge, one hopeful of softness, or a rougher edge in which the connection is cut loose and the spirit beside us set free.

Helen Maw reaches into the depths of her soul as she releases her new single, Shadows, taken from her latest album Growing Pains, and finds that whilst the creature beside her may never radiate her own likeness, it certainly has her sound, that what lays in shade is in itself its own source of illumination, its own puzzle which grieves over affairs of the heart, and celebrates the banishing of phantoms and darkness.

There is never a doubt of how much Ms. Maw puts of herself into her art, how she will double down and fiercely defend her insight and yet also carry the song with a gentleness that is beguiling, captivating, and charming; so much so that the song could have the most heartbreaking effect weaved into its narrative and yet still embody a greatness of positive beauty; one that frames the illumination offered with enticing clarification.

The song is never shrouded, it is open, proud, full of brightness and a special knowing, that even from the opening bar is filled with a generosity, and that is the point, that whilst we may never see the likeness in the shadow, we can still benefit, gain from its presence; and that is the effect that the track has on the listener…one of security even in the darkest of nights, we still feel all is well if we are attached to the light.

A great single, Helen Maw once again towers in her music.

Ian D. Hall