Category Archives: Music

Genesis: Six Sides Live Volume 2 – The Complete Knebworth 1992 Broadcast. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In 1992, Genesis were one of the biggest acts around, each member had their own success to varying degrees, and even their former guitarist and leading frontman were a force to be reckoned with; they could do no wrong, and on the back of their 1991 release of We Can’t Dance, it was only inevitable that at some point the three main members of Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, and Tony Banks, would go all out and record at least one concert on the tour.  It is perhaps with serendipity that the one released took place in the high summer, an August day filled with the possibility of being iconic, of being amongst the finest captured event since their most prominent gig since Wembley in 1987.

Genesis: Six Sides Live Volume 2 – The Complete Knebworth 1992 Broadcast. Album Review. full post

(570 words, 1 image, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Alun Parry: Invisible People. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To declare a finest achievement in a career that has been consistently sharp and forthright, is to perhaps rattle the soul of fortune, for few are comfortable with such an accolade, but is the preserve of the listener to affirm in their mind and state such an admiration for the artist.

Liverpool’s Alun Parry has once more returned with an album of such immensity that the socially conscious troubadour hits home with every ounce of its being, and in Invisible People’s very essence that sense of observation in the ordinary person, left out, abused by political dogma and the ever-increasing thought of isolation that has come our way through systematic exploitation of our thoughts and the violence within.

Alun Parry: Invisible People. Album Review. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Toyah: Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

From humble beginnings of a young girl from Kings Heath in Birmingham, the rebellious nature shone through early with acts that thrill the heart such as setting off a multitude of clocks from underneath the stage of her school that disrupted a speech from the then Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher, and which led rightly to her being hailed within a few short years as the Queen of the British Punk movement.

Toyah: Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah. Box Set Review. full post

(519 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Joseph Houck: Blue Ridge Mountain Waterfalls. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are in danger of losing a vital part of our humanity, what makes us special as a species; not just losing, but actively, with shame, almost insisting with every fibre in our being that Art of any shade serves no purpose to the human condition, that we cannot strive forward if we cling to the notion that we gain nothing from the world if we give it beauty, if we place emotion where absolute logic should be.

Joseph Houck: Blue Ridge Mountain Waterfalls. E.P. Review. full post

(444 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

The Far West: Everything We Thought We Wanted. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Everything we ever believed we desired has arguably turned sour, the so-called Post War dream has more than begun to resemble a nightmare, and the world, once drenched in the fine ideas of change and the hopes of 1960s counterculture, has become a liquid fire, a mantra of dissolution and despondency.

The Far West: Everything We Thought We Wanted. Album Review. full post

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

It’s Karma It’s Cool: Goliath. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We take a slingshot at life in the hope that it will bring down giants and monsters in our path, forever the underdog, we could end up being the unlikely winner in a game that we didn’t sign up for but which has left us with little choice but to outfox those who stand in our way and stand tall as their shadow looms over the proceedings, and for some, for those who see Karma as a weapon of truth then the slings afforded us are positive grooves in which to beat any Goliath with.

It’s Karma It’s Cool: Goliath. Single Review. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Bryan Adams: Roll With The Punches. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always a kind of unbalance to the world when you hear a bunch of songs for the first time at a gig several months before the album that they appear on is unleashed on to the conscious of the listener. It does always feel as though it is the wrong way round, a state of confusion that perhaps prepares you for the peace of a listen at home already acquainted with the dynamic, but which robs the actuality of sentiment and core memories later down the line as expressed in a group setting designed to inflame the senses and have the listener roll with every emotional punch available.

Bryan Adams: Roll With The Punches. Album Review. full post

(453 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Helloween: Giants & Monsters. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Giants & Monsters sees the return of one the most influential Heavy Metal bands to the front of the genre’s mass appeal, and in a year when the German group celebrate 40 years since they released their eponymous debut E.P. and later on that same year the towering Walls Of Jericho, Helloween, once again guided by the three originals of the band, Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen, and Markus Grosskopf, have placed before the masses a sense of continual cool as their new album creates certainty and an air of devilish mayhem to enjoy.

Helloween: Giants & Monsters. Album Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

FM: Brotherhood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Consistency, such a resounding achievement in any field, let alone artistic, is to be as lauded as that which comes from those who see the application of success as only one of creative ups and downs and continual disruption that leads to an output of extremes.

The variation of extreme might have some drooling with anticipation, but for the multitude the sheer ability of reliable dependability is overwhelmingly fierce, it shows a narrative of textured nuance that has been carefully thought out, fleshed and ironed with devotion, and in the solid and endearing rock group, FM’s latest album, Brotherhood, is a lesson in steadfast critically positive drive and ambition, strengthened by the infectious groove of the songs that pump blood and blow the mind.

FM: Brotherhood. Album Review. full post

(344 words, 1 image, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

H. Jack Williams: Something About Hope. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

When a poet speaks the whole world should tremble, people should listen with full attention and be silent, for a poet, unlike a politician of any persuasion or coloured rosette, has nothing to lose by using their voice to speak out or up for that which vexes society, there is no promise or delusion, only frank words designed to highlight and comfort, to place anger or shoulder the lie, and the spoken word of the poet should offer nothing but a truth.

H. Jack Williams: Something About Hope. Album Review. full post

(370 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)