Category Archives: Music

Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughn: On The Jimmy Reed Highway. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

No matter what we may think of the United States of America, politically at times exaggerated, we must surely concede that there is so much to learn from looking at the map of the continuous land mass and understanding its myths and history at times cross over, meld and merge to a point where the only option is to explore and witness the stories first hand, to go beyond that cross roads where the Devil collects souls whilst all Hell prays you continue on your journey.

Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughn: On The Jimmy Reed Highway. Album Review. full post

(384 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Joe Hodgson: Fields Of Redemption. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In the Fields Of Redemption, the grass will always be greener, the soul will be lighter, and the mind will be free of all that vexes it, for in delivering salvation to one’s own psyche, by offering a reclaiming of one’s past and not allowing it to define you, we find the liberation to explore a future which is clear and unhindered.

Joe Hodgson: Fields Of Redemption. Album Review. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Larry McCray: Heartbreak City. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

At one time or another we have all been residents of Heartbreak City, indeed some of have not only lived within the city’s limits, taken in the views, strolled in Melancholy Park, eaten in the many restaurants of regret, they have become a spokesperson for the desire to truly explore the surroundings before they can return to the land of the exuberant and the positive nature of performing for the masses.

Larry McCray: Heartbreak City. Album Review. full post

(431 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Pulp: More. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

More from Pulp should be greeted as the arrival of the unexpected gift, an album that arguably no fan of the Brit-Pop gatecrashes expected after such an absence from the charts and the studio. To hear the return of Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Mark Webber, and Jarvis Cocker in the iconic aural pose of poetry driven music is to feel once again the wonderful interaction of angst and tormented memories of growing up, of facing a future that seemed reserved for someone else.

Pulp: More. Album Review. full post

(501 words, 1 image, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Steely Dan: The Royal Scam. Album Reissue Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The final album from the classic period of Steely Dan’s immeasurable contribution to music has come to pass just a couple of weeks after it celebrated its 49th anniversary.

Critically undervalued at the time of its release, it didn’t need time to be appreciated, it just required ears that were not focused on the sea change in musical atmosphere as the expression of the short hand Punk descended on the world and the shifting attitudes of society aligned itself with change, a bloodless revolution which saw old favourites led to the scaffold and presented with a choice, adapt or no longer be relevant.

Steely Dan: The Royal Scam. Album Reissue Review. full post

(531 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Celebrating 50 Years – Live At The Ryman. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Lynyrd Skynyrd are one of the great eminences of music, no one can deny their place at the heart of American Rock, especially the Southern variety which they exemplified with panache and style in their distinguished career, no one can understate the enormous loss felt, and which still resonates today, as the story of the infamous airplane crash which devastated the group just at their absolute zenith; and yet as the group celebrate the release of Live At The Ryman, that sense of legendary performance is almost metaphysical, it is rejoiced.

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Celebrating 50 Years – Live At The Ryman. Album Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Star Circus: From The Wreckage. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

People say that bands have forgotten how to punch a song out with fierce gusto; like a prize fighter living on former glories and memories of taking down the one hit wonders who challenge with futility the king of the ring in his heyday, but who could now deliver From The Wreckage a stunning victory and knockout blow.

Star Circus: From The Wreckage. Album Review. full post

(432 words, 1 image, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Tawny Ellis: Edge Of The World. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The beauty of art that is emotionally charged is in its power to take you to the Edge Of The World before pulling back from the precipice and showing you that life is more than existence and suffering, nor is it a futile act of resistance, it is a glory to be lived boldly and with every fibre of your being.

Tawny Ellis: Edge Of The World. Album Review. full post

(440 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Memories Of A Lost Soul: Songs From The Restless Oblivion. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We face extinction it seems with a sense of dramatic unawareness, collectively we may look into the void and pretend to scream at the darkness, the hopeless of our cause opening up before us like a gigantic yawn from bored celestial being, but secretly it feels as though we are enjoying this realm of pre-annihilation, that the Songs From The Restless Oblivion are but a grand opus sang from the true depths of our embattled spirit.

Memories Of A Lost Soul: Songs From The Restless Oblivion. Album Review. full post

(386 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Ben Bostick: Become Other. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Always be curious, and never find yourself become narrowminded, find a way to ask questions rather than be so pained that you only listen to one side of argument and decide that is enough to carry the weight of your own opinion…Become Other than human judgement framed by all that you ever knew and not what you could have learned.

Ben Bostick: Become Other. Album Review. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)