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Inside View, Hollywood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Who wouldn’t want all that glistens beneath the beckoning sign that sits in the Californian hills, the bright lights of a million stars and their sometimes inevitable fading careers, the welcoming handshake and the talking down of orders as one face fits and a thousand others fall by the way side. Hollywood has it all, the fame, the glamour and the dirt and it takes a special breed of person to want to try their luck there.

James Patterson, Hope To Die. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

With hands held tightly in a sort of nervous anticipation for the next page to slowly crawl your way, finding that the last few chapters of what has been one long chase in Cross My Heart and its 2015 sequel Hope To Die, has left you feeling exasperated, slightly jaded, jarred and dejected, is enough to feel slightly cheated at what has otherwise been a great return to form for James Patterson and his erstwhile detective hero Alex Cross.

The Woodpecker And The Weasel.

We’ve all had that weasel on our backs at one time or another

but perhaps we haven’t dealt with it as gracefully

as a Woodpecker in flight.

This predator senses opportunity and attacks for gain

by offering only a platitude and the empty smile

and nothing else in return.

Whereas the badger, noble creature of the forest floor, set in its ways

and looking for all the world as a master of ethnic equality, sees the situation

in black and white and fights back against the weasel, but will probably

Joe Bonamassa, Muddy Wolf At Red Rocks. Live Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It’s always tempting to wonder how certain genres or moods will be viewed fifty years in the future, when the generation who shaped a period of time will perhaps have shuffled off into the sunset and those that followed in their wake are left to assess what exactly their music meant to them. It’s a tempting thought filled with the potential to be uplifting and equally, sobering.

Rich McMahon, Songs Of Exile, Love And Dissent. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Rich McMahon exemplifies the thought that eventually you can and must find your own voice in which to relate tales and stories to. It is an obligation to humanity to be able to look at people in the face and whisper a truth to them and hope that it some small way it opens up a dialogue between souls, or if that fails then at least the artist has opened themselves up to an audience willing to listen.

Murdering Words.

She rang me in the middle of the night, speech slightly slurred,

scurried, slow drawled, concerned and with heavy patience address.

“I worry about you, I believe you will write yourself to death

one dank and dark December day.”

The hint of concern overflowing and verging on future grief

overwhelmed me briefly and

I paused for thought, after all the hour had not long since departed

three, half a pall bearing team I thought wildly with a wry grin,

I wonder where the other half went, perhaps to make sandwiches, after all

Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher’s Daughter. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is something in Brandi Carlile’s voice that just resonates with an abiding truth, something that burns equally with fire, brimstone and rage and yet could hold the gentlest of whispers of love and concern in the palm of a hand as if it was a butterfly being caressed by a tranquil breeze. That juxtaposition between light and the shadow, one cannot live without the other it seems and in her new release, The Firewatcher’s Daughter; that truth is solid, without fear and as compulsive a listen as you could hope for.

Europe, War Of Kings. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

There is always a power behind the throne, literature understands that, politics revels in its darkness and music hints at it, perhaps more so in veiled comments and sideways glances in the artistically rounded lyric, but none the less it exists and on paper for Europe’s latest album War Of Kings it is a sound premise to delve into.

The Shires, Brave. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Music has no borders, it has certain areas of influence which can undoubtedly be traced back to a particular area or region. Unlike though the political machinations in which many try to claim a piece of land as their own, to demand that one genre of music only exists to serve the purpose of the people that thrive, live or stagnate because of a certain group or variety is to court absurdity.

Solmanath’s Extra Day.

With the pleasantries over, the argument started in earnest

and February shook its small but well rounded

fist at the other eleven members

of the council and stated his intent to see equality achieved that day.

 

“I still don’t understand why I cannot at least be thirty days long…!”

He boomed in a winter foamed echoing voice

which shook snow from the steadfast Oak and which drifted in a flurry

on to the table carved from a fallen Willow and in which

August exclaimed a serious dislike for.